


Stranger Winter

by Magical_Alpha



Series: Ibon's Wrath [1]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet Ending, Blood and Gore, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Demonic Possession, Dialogue Heavy (at times), Flashbacks, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Major Character Injury, Monsters, Multi, Nietzche Nihilism, Nihilism, Non-Canonical Violence, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:07:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 43,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27782722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magical_Alpha/pseuds/Magical_Alpha
Summary: Weird Autumn. Stranger Winter.A mysterious force sweeps over Possum Springs, turning those affected by it into rabid berserk maniacs. And in some cases, it begins to mutate them entirely. Mae and friends go out and try to find the cause of this, while having to fend for themselves and what few townsfolk remain unaffected. Along the way, Mae discovers a bleak truth about herself.--Fair Warning: This story strays heavily from the down-to-earth nature of its source material. Some parts can be quite gruesome. Also there are some things in this that aren't entirely confirmed in canon.
Relationships: Angus Delaney/Greggory Lee, Mae Borowski/Original Character(s)
Series: Ibon's Wrath [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149284
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	1. Snowstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roughly a month after Mae and co. put an end to the cult of the Black Goat, a light blizzard hit the area of Deep Hollow County. Mae is kept up by the winds and overhears the news as she searches for a sleep aid. The next morning, she heads out into the town of Possum Springs, only to spot that something unusual was happening...

Harsh blizzard winds whipped through the dark air outside of the attic window. Snow fell in a torrent down to the earth, accumilating another layer on the half foot sheet of white snow. All of the rattling and howling caused by the wind caused a very dark blue-furred cat to lay restlessly on her bed. It had been snowing ever since Mae had gone to bed at around 9 PM. She reached over to the nightstand she kept her mobile phone on and clicked the phone on, reading that it was now 10:47. There were several popup notifications about a severe weather warning, pushing the expected time for the blizzard to stop back and back.  
"Geez... Feels like this is never gonna end." Groaned a quite sleep deprived Mae. She clicked the phone back to sleep before she sat up. "Screw it, some sleep meds should knock me right out." She thought out loud, getting out of bed and exiting her room. She walked down the stairs, passing by the portrait of their family as she got to the first floor. Her mom and dad were nowhere to be seen at this hour, but the television was on, displaying the news. Mae was going to just walk right past the living room and into the kitchen, but stopped right at the living room in interest as the news anchor spoke.

"... The sudden, unanticipated blizzard continues to pour snow, sleet and heavy winds in the area, affecting Fort Lucenne, Saltztown, and Possum Springs. Thankfully, none of these towns have reported any power outages. More details will be provided soon." The brown deer on the screen spoke informatively, before he looked down and seemed to shuffle some papers on his desk off-screen. "Residents of Possum Springs are still mourning the loss of Casey Hartley-"  
Hearing that name made Mae's heart drop, placing a weight on her chest. She remembered her and Gregg delivering the news to Mr. and Mrs. Hartley. It was the first time that she had broken down sobbing in a while, not counting the time in the mine. 'That doesn't count...' She thought to herself as she recalled it, 'My life literally almost ended that time.' Regardless, now Casey's death just couldn't seem to leave her alone. The cat shook her head, finally walking into the kitchen for the sleep med she had intended to grab in the first place.  
As she walked into the kitchen, her attention was drawn away from the news that she couldn't make out what they were saying on the TV.

"... Oh, we seem to have a brand new report." The deer said, grabbing another sheet of paper and straightening it out. "According to the Possum Springs Police Department, there have been numerous reports of residents turning violent for no clear reason, attacking others indiscriminately... Allegedly, one resident has already been killed..." His face warped to a look of worry as he read off what was in his new report.

At this point, Mae had gulped down a dose the liquid sleep aid, shuddering at the overly medicinal taste of it before she put the bottle back in the cabinet and walking back up the stairs into her attic room. It was quite likely that the Ol Pickaxe was gonna be closed due to the storm, so at least she didn't have to worry about getting enough sleep for the job she managed to land a few weeks prior. As she laid on her bed, the taste of medicine lingering in her mouth, she slowly but surely fell asleep.

...  
When she awoke after her 10 hours of sleep, Mae stretched to loosen up, her eyelids feeling heavy from how groggy she was from the sleep aid. She looked outside to see that the snow had finally stopped falling at this point, and the morning sunlight was already helping the very top of what looked like a two or three foot layer of snow, making it glisten. It also seemed like there were some people out with snow shovels helping clear the road. Not as many as she'd expect, and they were mostly construction workers, but she figured not many people wanted to volunteer to shovel the monstrous amount of frozen, slippery snow. The cat got out of bed and got her laptop out, opening it to see if there were any unread messages from earlier in the morning. It turned out that there was in fact a couple messages from two of the three contacts she had on the messenger app, Gregg and Bea. She checked what Gregg's message was first.

> "Hey man, crazy snowstorm last night. Most stores along Towne Centre are closed, so me and Angus are gonna be in our apartment."

Then Mae checked Bea's messages.

> "Hey MayDay. You probably would've guessed, but the Ol Pickaxe is closed for today. Bunch of snow making it a bit dangerous to go anywhere. But, if you wanna make the trek through the snow just to say hi at my apartment, be my guest."  
>  "Although, I'd kinda recommend against going outside. Not sure if you've read up on the news lately, but there's something weird going on. I'll explain later."

The last message made Mae raise a brow, but she shrugged it off. She could ask Bea about it if they met up. With that, she got out of bed, put her shoes on and headed back downstairs to really begin her day.  
She got to the bottom of the stairs, walking past the living room into the kitchen yet again, where her mother sat in her usual morning spot. Mae hopped up onto the counter. "Mornin', mom." She greeted, trying to sound cheery past her obvious grogginess.  
"You okay, hon?" Mrs. Borowski immediately asked.  
"Yeah, I'm alright. Couldn't sleep much last night with that storm. Sounded like my window was gonna get blown in..." Mae explained. "I ended up taking some of that sleep medicine up there. Helped me sleep... Wants to keep me asleep." She joked with a light smirk.  
"I see. Got work today?" Her mom inquired.  
"Nah. Pickaxe is closed. Gonna go out and see if the outside air will wake me up."  
"Oh my! Be careful out there, sweetie. All that snow might just swallow you up!" The mother joked with a giggle.  
"Har har. Alright, I'm out of here." Mae stated, but she couldn't help but smile. Getting to talk with her mother got her in a positive mood as she went over to the coat rack near the door, grabbing a light tan jacket and getting it on. She opened the door... And immediately felt the frigid morning air as she had to start trudging through shin-high snow. "Screw this." She thought aloud, climbing up on top of the mailbox, then up to the limb of a dead tree, then onto the powerline.

"Eff the snow. And Eff. The. Cops!"

Mae balanced along the powerline leading up to the upper half of Maple Street, with the steep incline in the road and all of the apartments. She spotted her short bear neighbor Selma Ann Forrester from above, sitting near the entrance of her apartment building as usual. Seeing all the snow on the sidewalk down there, Mae hatched an idea... Without warning, she jumped and position herself with her back down in midair. "Selmerrrssss!!" The cat called out as she fell, managing to land on her back on the snow in front of the bear with a hefty 'pomf'.  
"Geez! Mae! You trying to give me a heart attack?" Selmers questioned, having jumped a bit at Mae's stunt.  
"Did it work?" Mae responded sarcastically.  
"No," The bear answered, "But since you're here, you wanna hear a new poem?"  
"Selmers, you know I always have time for a poem." Mae enthusiastically answered.

The bear cleared her throat before beginning.

> "Snow fell aplenty,  
>  Been falling since nine-twenty.  
>  But now the sun is out,  
>  And everyone is out and about."

"Say, how come you don't come up with longer poems, like the one you told in the library last month?" Mae wondered.  
"Eh. I usually leave my more impactful stuff for when I have a bigger, more professional audience." Selmers replied with a shrug.  
"So you're saying if I become like, a professional poet, we could share longer poems?"  
"I... Guess? You'd have to share some with me though." The bear mused. Mae stood up, the back of her jacket covered in white powdery snow.

"Say, have you seen the news lately?" The cat questioned.  
"Can't say I've caught up with it here lately. Why, what's up?" Selmers answered with curiosity.  
"Dunno. Friend of mine mentioned something but just kinda didn't elaborate. In fact, I was heading up to Towne Centre to see her."  
"Huh. Well, I'll see you later then."  
With a nod, Mae walked along through the sidewalk snow up the hill and toward Towne Centre. She pulled her journal out of her back pocket and flipped to the page that mentioned Selmers, and wrote a new entry underneath. "Thought: Become a poet to hear better poems from Selmers." As she looked up and put her journal back in her pocket, she noticed in the distance, toward the Centre, there were quite a few small buildings that were barricaded with yellow and black tape lines, labelled "POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS". If it were just one building, it likely wouldn't be weird, but just from the main road, she could see at least three of them. As her mind pondered about what caused this scene, she happened to mindlessly walk past Bea's apartment building. Her awareness suddenly came back to her when she heard a familiar, stoic voice from behind, looking behind to see the source.

"Mae! Hey, get in here!" A tall, blue alligator in a rather heavy black coat ushered Mae into the apartment, to which the cat complied, entering the building through the front door and into the old-looking lobby.  
"Uh... Hey, Bea. The heck's going on around here?" The cat questioned, recalling what she read earlier at home. "Does it have to do with what you texted me this morning?"  
"It does, actually. Look, I dunno what exactly is going on, but some people around here are just suddenly going crazy. Like one moment they're normal and the next they're growling and attacking others."  
"Holy shit, what??" Mae's eyes widened as she was taken aback. "You mean like, just beating the hell out of anyone they see?"  
"Seems like it. Apparently it started last night, during that storm. Who knows how many people may've been affected, and no one else knows because the storm made it impossible to reach them..." It wasn't often that Mae could see genuine worry in Bea's eyes, but that feeling reflected off of the gator and onto the much smaller cat, causing that queasy sensation of unease in her.

Something wrong was going on. Something _very_ wrong.


	2. Descent into Mania

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae and Bea go to check on their friends Gregg and Angus. On their way, they save a stranger from a rabid attacker, and learn that her name is Kari Storstrand. After grouping up, Mae and co. follow Germ out to a hidden set of tunnels for safety.

The two of them took the elevator up to the floor where Bea was residing. On the way up, Mae asked her gator friend, "How are Gregg and Angus doing? I'm sure they're holed up in their own apartments."  
The elevator door opened, leading to a hallway with numerous doors as the two walked out. "I haven't heard from them since like... Eight in the morning. About three hours ago." Bea answered the question. She began to walk over to her door, when she stopped and noticed a quite worried-looking Mae. "What?" She asked before realizing what was up. "Mae, I'm sure they're fine. We could just send them a message and--" But before she could finish, the cat had already walked backwards into the elevator again. "Oh for God's sake, Mae!" Bea called out, rushing back in the elevator before the doors closed.

"If you don't wanna go out there, then why are you coming with me?" Mae argued as the lift arrived to the bottom floor yet again.  
"Because I want to make sure you don't get your dumb ass hurt, or worse. People _have_ died because of this." Bea retorted in a sharp yet sort of caring tone. "Come on, we should hurry, cause I gotta get back here soon." She added, opening the front door and heading out into the snow-covered sidewalk with her friend toward Centre Ave. Aside from the yellow and black tape and cops, more than Mae had seen at one time, there didn't seem to be any hostile activity as the pair passed by the closed Ol Pickaxe and Video Outpost "Too".  
The pair got to the other side of the area, getting into the lobby of the 1063 apartment building that their friends lived. Mae was a mere moment from calling the elevator down with the press of the button before it began to descend down to the first floor without an input. When the lift reached where Mae and Bea were at, two figures immediately busted out together as the doors opened: A white-furred fox lady in a blue sweater and a rugged, brown-furred wolf guy. The wolf seemed to be completely berserk, his eyes were bloodshot and he snarled as he pinned the fox down.  
"G-Get off of me!!" The fox cried out, trying to push the wolf off, but to no avail. The crazed lupine tried to bite the fox, his teeth snapping together as a frothy white liquid collected in his mouth. Before he could do any harm, however, Bea quickly stepped up and gave a heavy kick to the side of the wolf's head with enough force to render him unconscious, giving the fox stranger a chance to push him off and stand up.

"H-Holy crap!" Mae commented, her heartbeat accelerated simply from watching the display as she looked at the unconscious wolf.  
Bea looked over to the fox. "Hey. You, uh... You alright?"

"I'm fine, yes. Thanks..." The stranger started, panting to catch her breath. "Thanks for saving me right there. I'm Kari Storstrand, but most people just call me Kari S."  
"I'm Beatrice, most people call me Bea, and this is Mae." The gator introduced. "We're here to check up on a couple of people. You know Gregg and Angus?" She inquired.  
"Oh yeah, they live on the fourth floor. You go on ahead, I have no intention of staying around here." Kari insisted.  
"If you go outside, stay near an officer. They'll keep you protected." Bea said, inciting a quick glance from Mae before the two went into the elevator.

The lift began to make its way up to the fourth floor. The claustrophobic space of the elevator, combined with the adrenaline of seeing that wolf attacking Kari S. kept Mae on her toes as the door eventually opened...  
  
Meanwhile, within the living room of the apartment, a large bear and a yellow fox hid cautiously. Gregg had a quite short yet sharp knife out in the case of a hostile intruder, and Angus simply kept still as the pair heard footsteps approaching the front door. Then there were three knocks on the door.  
"Who is it??" The fox called out.  
"Woah, it's just me and Bea." Mae responded, instantly lifting all concerns that the two inside had.  
"Oh wow, Mae? What're you doing here?" Asked Gregg as he went over and opened the door, putting his blade away.  
"She was wanting to make sure you were alright. Seems like you are." Bea explained. "If you wanna hang around here, Mae, be my guest. I should probably get back home--" The gator started before the stairway door swung open behind her and the cat. The two girls looked around to see that the same brown wolf had burst into the hallway outside of the room, gnashing and snapping his teeth together as he bit at the air itself before seeing the four of them, his bloodshot eyes locked on-target.

Gregg and Angus' eyes widened at the sight, and Mae could only mutter one thing in the moment.  
"Oh, crap..."

The berserk wolf growled, his breath shaky as a trickle of crimson blood coming from the left side of his head from the blow he had received from Bea in the lobby. Mae was going to open her mouth to speak, but then the wolf charged down the hall toward the group before grabbing the cat by the top of the head. Mae yelped in surprise and shock before the wolf rushed her over to the hallway window and quickly bashing her head against the glass with enough force to shatter it and push her head outside.  
The combination of the back of her head slamming against glass and her hair being pulled made Mae cry out in pain as she fruitlessly punched at the berserk lupine attacking her. But then, without warning, the wolf let her go as she moved her head back inside and panted, regaining focus. She saw that Gregg had went ahead and stabbed the attacker in the gut, causing him to buckle over in pain, the short knife still injected in his abdomen as he struggled to stand back up. "We should get the hell out of here!" Bea called out.  
The back of Mae's head had an intense, blunt pain resonating in it, but she gave a thumbs up as the four got in front of the elevator door, but it appeared that the lift was in use. They instead rushed down the stairs down to the first floor. As they got to the bottom and into the lobby, they panted from running, with Angus wheezing a bit. "You alright, big guy?" Mae concerned herself over the big bear, knowing about his asthma.  
"I'm good. Just... _*huff*_ Give me a moment," Angus replied. "Does... Anyone know what's going on at all?"  
"Wish I could tell you, honestly. It just kinda started last night. From what I heard, it started in the outskirts, around the old railroad tracks, but now it looks like it's reached Towne Centre," Bea explained.  
"'Reached'? As in spread?" Mae piped up.  
"Yeah? No?" the gator tried to come up with an answer before shrugging, causing Mae to scratch her chin curiously as the four got back outside. Back on the sidewalk, it seemed like the residents were in a panic, with some more individuals with the same mania as that wolf running amuck deeper into the Centre area. Mae's eyes widened for a moment when he saw a familiar face on the other side of the road. A dark blue, short bird guy, clad in a heavy grey coat rather than the black nylon jacket he was in for the fall season. He seemed just as worried as anyone else about what was unfolding in the town.

"Germ!" Mae called out to him, grabbing his attention. Without a moment of hesitation, even to look both ways across the road, the bird rushed over to the four, trudging through all the snow.  
"You guys are alright!" Germ acknowledged.  
"A bit shaken up, but yeah," Gregg replied. "Bit of a dumb question, but you wouldn't happen to know what's causing this?"  
"No idea. But, I was just going through here to check on you all. Least I know you aren't hurt or anything."  
  
Bea looked over to the direction of where her home was, seeing numerous berserk residents engaging in enraged combat with both other civilians and the police. It was hard to tell from where the group was standing, but it was possible that blood was being drawn upon that very street. "Damnit. Going that way might just be a death wish at this point," she thought aloud.  
"We should probably like, camp out and wait for this to blow over. Check up with everyone else when we're sure it's safe," Mae suggested.  
"Camp out," Bea repeated, "In the winter, with me quite literally being cold-blooded. I'd pretty likely die from exposure at night."  
"How did y'all even make it past colonial times? Probably had to be huddled real close to the campfires in wool coats," the cat pondered.  
"We could use the tunnel system," Germ piped up, gaining the attention of the other four.  
"Tunnel system? Like, the flooded trolley railway?" Mae inquired.  
"No no. Like, it's more like a bunch of corridors underground. Some lead to the sewers, some lead to the fallout shelter that was supposedly built for rich people back in the Cold War times," the bird explained matter-of-factly. "There are a few discrete entrances, some of them being manholes that you'd expect just go straight to the sewers. One of 'em is right in the hill next to the old Food Donkey's parking lot."

"This is new to me, somehow. Whatever, let's go," Bea said. With that, the five of them hurried out of the rapidly filling street, past the Clik Clak diner and toward the abandoned Food Donkey grocery store. Mounds of snow surrounded the empty parking lot, with the asphalt being covered in a layer of slippery wet ice that the group had to carefully walk across. They all had a myriad of thoughts running through their head, but kept quiet as Germ led them toward the hill on the opposite end of the lot. But as they were crossing, they heard a feminine voice call out to them from behind, accompanied by rapid sounds of snow crunching under a pair of shoes.  
"Hey! Wait up!!" the voice yelled as the five turned around to see the white fox that Mae and Bea had met in the lobby.   
"Kari?" Mae called out as the fox got to the ice-covered asphalt, but in her rushed spring to the group, her foot slipped out from under her, causing her to fall down onto her belly with a grunt as she landed on the front of her light blue sweater. Mae and Gregg carefully went over to help her back on her feet.  
"You alright, dude?" Gregg asked as Kari panted, but she gave a nod in response.  
"Goodness... The whole town just devolved into a place of mania. So many people going rampant..." Kari retold. There was a look in her eyes that showed a certain downness to her.  
"Yeah. It's pretty screwed up, but we've got a place to hide out until it blows over."  
"The outskirts would be good to stay. Not as populated, so not as many crazed people."  
Germ would speak up as he approached Kari, Mae and Gregg. "We're not necessarily going to the outskirts. We're going into the tunnels."  
"Tunnels?" Kari wondered. "Also, hello, I don't believe we've met," she said to Germ.

The group more properly introduced themselves to Kari, and vice versa as they all walked further along, getting near the hill covered in glistening white snow. Mae glanced subtly over to a staircase leading to a fence that leads into the woods... "Hey, Ms. Borowski," Kari started, grabbing her attention.  
"'Mae' works just fine," the cat insisted.  
"You wouldn't happen to be related to a police officer, would you?"  
Mae raised a brow. "I am. My aunt's a cop."  
"Ohh... I was with her and a couple of other cops when we ended up getting overrun on the street. The cat officer who I can only assume is your aunt got attacked, just completely pinned down, and..."


	3. The Shelter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae discovers that the mania taking over her hometown has taken someone within her own family. Distraught, she makes a decision; She wants to discover the origin of this sudden outbreak, and put a stop to it.

"Huh?? Is... Is she okay!?" Mae demanded in a slight panic.  
"I-I..." Kari was visibly distraught, clearly unwilling to carry the news. Everyone caught on, though, especially the niece of the feline officer that had been mentioned. They all stopped walking, just in time to be in front of a stone brick-laden tunnel entrance.  
"Oh my God," Bea spoke up in a tone lower than usual after a moment of shocked silence. "Mae... You and Molly were never exactly close, but..." she sighed solemnly.

Mae simply stared, not even acknowledging Bea's sentiment. When she first woke up, everything felt normal to her. But now, everyone in her own hometown was going berserk for no good reason... And now they've taken a member of her family. She never truly hated her aunt, she just hated her profession. Her chest felt heavy, cold and hot at the same time. Her mind wandered endlessly between different possibilities; What if they kill her neighbors? Selmers, Mr. Chazokov, Mr. Twigmeyer... What if they kill her mother and father? Everything blurred for her... The true gravity of the situation hit her like a truck on the highway.  
"I... Uh, think we should keep moving..." Germ spoke up after what felt like an eternity. His voice was lower than the casual tone he usually carried. Mae was shaken from her self-induced trance and nodded as they all entered the tunnel. The occasional ceiling light kept the stone-walled corridor from being pitch black as they walked further in.  
"You okay?" Gregg asked Mae, seeing her drag her feet. She looked up at him with a deadpan expression.  
"We need to find out what is causing this, and put a stop to it before it kills more people" was her response. It appeared this was going to be the mine incident all over again.

Gregg, Bea, Angus, Kari and Germ awkwardly looked back toward the cat who had just proclaimed they should put an end to the mania taking over Possum Springs. "... Aaaand how do you plan on doing that, exactly?" Bea spoke up. "I'm sorry to say this, but the last time you tried to set out alone to fix something, you almost got yourself killed. And then we made you agree never to do anything like that again."  
"I'm sorry what are we talking about here-" Kari cut in before Mae suddenly spoke up.  
"People are dying out there, and we're simply just hiding away??" the cat demanded.  
"Mae, you are _not_ about to try to be a hero. That is _not_ what is about to happen," Bea argued. Though, she couldn't be too harsh; This sudden outburst from the feline was from her aunt's passing. Kari's eyes wandered between the cat and gator as the group travelled further along, following signs that were simply labelled 'SHELTER'. The last few minutes were a lot to take in for all of them, but they continued until they found themselves turning a corner and coming up to a sturdy iron door.  
  
"Here we are. It's unlocked," Germ said, pulling at the metal door to open it, revealing a spacious room with shelves packed with bottles of water and packages of non-perishable food of various types.  
"How did you find out about all this? All the information brochures I've read never mentioned a Cold War fallout shelter," Bea questioned as they walked in.  
"I just kinda snoop around."  
"Uh-huh..."

"Do we know if these, uh, supplies are still good?" Gregg asked.  
"I'm sure they are. Stuff's meant to last like a hundred years." Angus replied, picking up a packet of what seemed like minute rice. There was a gas stove, refrigerator and some storage containers. There was also a working clock, reading 8:54 AM. It had literally been half an hour since Mae left her home this morning.  
"You mentioned this was supposedly meant for like, rich people? Are there even rich people in Possum Springs?" The bear questioned.  
"Back in the day, I suppose," The small bird answered. "I'm no historian."

Hours passed as they got settled into the shelter. Everyone was tired - More mentally than physically. They found small mattresses and sleeping bags and placed enough for all six of the group members, laying down for a short rest to pass the time.  
"... Psst. Mae," Gregg whispered over to the cat who was laying alone. "You haven't said a word since we got here. I'm kinda curious what your plan is, with the whole 'finding out what's causing this' deal and all."  
"I... Man, I don't even know. I was just freaked out at that moment and started running my mouth without thinking. But I'd really like to figure out why all this just started going on," Mae explained. "Like I said, people out there are getting killed."  
"I get that, but like, we might get killed if we go back in there. I'm not entirely sure what we're gonna do other than just hold up in here, but going back into town isn't in our agenda."  
"Mm. We'll just have to think about that when we wake up." The cat suggested as she closed her eyes. She only hoped that her other friends and family were safe... No. She was going to make sure. She simply had to go back and see if they were okay. Even if one or more of them have had their lives taken, she at least had to know, or else fear and uncertainty would overflow in her. She waited until the other five seemed like they were asleep, and then got up out of her sleeping bag.


	4. Back Into Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae, accompanied by Kari and Germ, sets off back into town. They take a detour around Towne Centre and come across a familiar face along a neighborhood.

Mae carefully opened the shelter door, slipping out before closing it back behind her. The cat walked along the underground tunnels, trying to find her way out through the same entrance that the group went in. After a minute, she found an opening in the tunnel, leading outside from the same hill. The brisk winter evening air harshly bit at her as she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head, digging her boots into the snowy ground below her. She rubbed at the back of her head, feeling a dull yet pulsing pain back there ever since her head was smashed through a glass window. But before she could start heading toward the town, her sensitive ears picked up footsteps from the tunnel behind her. Her ear twitched as she turned around to see who was trailing her, only to see that it was Kari.  
"Mae?" The fox called out.  
"What's up?" Mae asked as Kari got up to her.  
"I overheard you and Gregg earlier. You're serious about this, aren't you?"  
"At this point, I really just wanna check everyone back there, including my mom and dad. If you wanna come with, be my guest I suppose."  
"Your friends would likely search for us, and they'd be putting themselves in danger," Kari mentioned before sitting down at the mouth of the tunnel entrance. Mae would go over to sit next to her. "I'm... Really sorry about your aunt. I can't imagine what this is like."  
"Y'know. It's fine. I mean it's not, but..." The cat sighed. "I'm just kinda tore up cause I always acted like a little shit to her, just cause she was a cop. Had I known this would happen, I would've made it up to her. Cause we're family, and a family member's last memory shouldn't be that sorta... What's the word where two people are sorta aggressive toward each other?"  
"Hostility?" the fox guessed.  
"Yeah yeah. That," the two of them just sat on the hard floor for a few moments, the silence starting to weigh on them after a second. "Uhh. So, Kari, how long have you been in Possum Springs? It's not usually this... Chaotic."  
"Well, I actually live quite far from here. I was simply staying over with a friend for December. Y'know, for Longest Night. That, uh... Was the wolf that attacked me," Kari recalled. "You think he's okay? Maybe the mania isn't permanent."  
"Um, he kindaaaa has a knife in his gut," Mae delivered bluntly. "It wasn't pulled out, though, so he likely won't bleed out. If he's sane again, he's likely in the hospital by now."  
"Hopefully..." the fox stood up. "I should get back, I'll explain to the others if they wake up before you get back."  
  
"Explain what?" the two girls suddenly heard Germ behind them, both jumping and looking back to see the bird casually standing behind them.  
"Holy God, Germ! How did I not hear you walking up behind us??" Mae questioned, receiving a simple shrug from him.  
"You two heading out? I came looking for you when I saw that you left the shelter. It'd be dangerous to go out alone," Germ pointed out.  
"You wanting to tag along?" Kari asked. "I was planning on staying back, but... More people would be safer. I'll go back and leave a note for the others, and we'll be on our way."

The fox walked back in as Mae mentally prepared herself for the trek ahead. She looked toward the Centre before diverting her gaze toward the other side of the Food Donkey across the lot. 'Would be better to avoid Towne Centre at first, just sneak around and get home,' The cat planned, letting out a breath of foggy air. Her ear would twitch again as Kari approached them again after about a minute. "Alright, let's roll," Mae announced, the other two giving a nod as they walked away from the tunnel, out into the parking lot. Approaching the far side of the grocery store, the cat spotted a backpack on the ground in front of the store's entrance, with a wooden baseball bat jutting out of the open top.  
The three walked up to the backpack, with Mae bending down and picking the bat up immediately. "Arming yourself?" Kari asked.  
"Yeah. I can't really fist fight, but I know my way around a bat," Mae admitted, opting not to mention her infamous softball incident.  
"I thought you mentioned that you liked wrestling?" Germ piped up, remembering the topic coming up between him and the cat some time ago.  
"Oh okay, Germ, I'll just wrestle these crazy people who would probably rip my guts out," Mae sarcastically retorted. But, before she could say anything else, Kari pointed to something behind Mae. The cat looked behind her, toward one of the store's windows to see a missing person poster.

"Who would leave a poster like this all the way out here...?" The fox pondered quietly as they read it, seeing that it was for an older possum named Conway L. Mayweather, age 67.  
' _Probably one of the cultists. These posters have been popping up here and there..._ ' Mae thought to herself before she simply shrugged at Kari's question. "Let's just get going." She suggested, with the trio continuing on their way past the grocery store.

But the three of them would fail to see another individual behind them, all the way at the top of the hill's staircase. A male possum, clad in a black robe and a rifle slung around him. He drew in a deep breath through his nose, letting out in a sigh before he reached behind his head and flipped the hood of his robe over his head.

Mae, Germ and Kari trekked along, ignoring the crisp wintry air biting at them as the sun slowly set into the horizon. They wandered onto an empty field toward a pair of distant railroad tracks, where a row of proper houses sat along a street. "You know where we're going?" Kari asked Mae.  
"Yeah. Taking a longer route to avoid the more dense area of town," the feline answered. "We'll be back to Towne Centre, uh, eventually." As they walked along the snow-covered field, Mae looked over to their left past the tracks, eyeing a thinly frozen pond.  
"Wow, it's been a while since I've been to that pond," Mae reminisced with a smile.  
"You ever gone skinny dipping there? Lots of people have, I did once like five years ago," Germ told, his lack of a filter showing itself.  
"Oh I did. Did it with Casey when we were like 13 or so. It was embarrassing, but also... Relaxing?" the cat guessed.  
After some more walking, the three came across an intersection between two streets.

Mae looked up and read the street signs, seeing that they were between Chestnut Street and Locke Road. "Oh hey, Chestnut. Someone I know lives here," she pointed out. "I used to hike out up here when I was real younger so I could see the tracks and play in the playground. Late at night, unsupervised."  
"You're not really a lady of the law, huh?" the fox notioned. "Don't like cops, wandered around at night without supervision..."  
"Well, excuuuuse me, princess," Mae lifted a brow.

The trio travelled further along the street. There was no one outside, and some of the houses seemed completely abandoned, although some of them had 'For Sale' signs in the front yard. "Some of the houses here have been abandoned for years. Wonder why no one lives in them anymore," Germ pondered.  
"No one can afford a house anymore, Germ. The people who put the houses on sale are just old people who either left Possum Springs or died of old age. In fact--" Mae was explaining before the three heard a high-pitched yell. Their gaze jerked over to the source, seeing a dark grey mouse girl in a black hoodie, with a visibly rabid green-blue crocodile guy with bloodshot orange eyes giving chase behind her. 


	5. Search and Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite Kari writing a note to the rest in the shelter, Bea, Gregg and Angus set off to find their friends. They come across some oddities in Towne Centre before discovering an underground hideout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "..." Before a paragraph signifies a shift in location, time or perspective. Some personal formatting.

"Isn't that... Steve Scriggins??" Mae called out before the croc managed to grab the mouse by the sides, opening his mouth up wide.  
The mouse put a hand up to try in vain to stop Scriggins, whose jaw went and clamped down on her wrist with teeth piercing the skin. Lori yelled out in pain, punching the berserk Scriggins in the cheek and eye with her free hand as he pulled his head back, the sharp teeth digging further into the mouse's arm. But then suddenly, the end of a wooden baseball bat was hurled onto the side of the croc's head, whacking heavily against and causing him to fall off of Lori.

Scriggins was now unconscious and limp on the floor, with a red and purple mark on the side of his head. Lori looked up to see that Mae was the one who had hit him, and she had two people trailing behind her. The cat's breathing was heavy as she held the now slightly bloodied bat. "H-Holy crap... Mae?" Lori asked as the feline calmed herself down. "Well, I'm glad to see you're not infected like him."

"Infected?" Mae wondered.  
"That's what this is, right? Like in those movies, like Left 2 Die," Lori's voice was a tad shaky as she tried to ignore the sharp pain in her wrist.  
"Ehh, I think people just kinda turn crazy for no real reason. It's weird, but I'm sure you'll be okay. Now, uh, 'bout the arm..."  
All four of them looked down at Lori's cut wrist as it dripped blood onto the ground below. "I'll survive. In fact, I just so happen to have..." The mouse started before reaching into one of her hoodie pockets with her uninjured hand and pulled out a roll of bandage wrap.  
"You just... Keep that on you?" Kari asked.  
"I climb onto rooftops on my free time, I gotta be prepared in case I fall or somethin'," Lori answered.  
"I would take a splint. Falls usually lead to broken bones," Germ interjected mildly, to which the mouse shrugged and started wrapping the bandage around the rows of cuts.  
"Worst that's happened to me is that I fell off a ladder and ended up scraping the hell out of my knee, probably took some skin off. This helped stop the bleeding," Lori pointed out as she finished wrapping, ripping off the end of the bandage and putting the roll back in her pocket.

The four of them walked along the sidewalk, with Kari introducing herself to the mouse teen. Mae explained that she had been hiding out, but was returning to check up on people she knew. "And, uh, where's your dad, by the way?" she asked Lori  
"He was at work further into town when everything went crazy."  
"I guess we'll also look for--" the cat started before the four heard a hard bump against glass to their right. They looked over to see a berserk hog person in the house next to them, running up and thumping against one of the front windows. With each ram, the window cracked more and more, until it shattered and let the hog fall through and struggle to get back up. "Shit!" Mae hissed, readying her bat to defend the group.  
But just as the hog stood back up, they all heard a loud snapping followed by a quick boom as the rabid hog's head jerked to the side and he fell down to the ground motionless. A streak of crimson blood drops could be seen on the snow next to him as a puddle grew under his head, and light grey smoke flowed from holes at either side of it. Each of the four witness' minds raced as they looked down at the body. Lights turned on in other houses as some dogs began barking madly, and Mae looked over down the street to briefly see a black figure going into hiding behind a building. Her attention was diverted as Kari grabbed her arm. "We should move," the fox ushered as they rushed down the sidewalk until they took a turn that would take them toward Mae's home street.

"Holy shit, that guy was shot!" the cat cried.  
"We saw, and we need to get to safety before we get shot," Germ stated, but just as they got to the intersection that would take them onto Maple Street, they all stopped running to catch their breath, with Mae leaning down and putting her hands on her knees.  
"God, I need to hit the gym..." she panted before looking up and glancing around, spotting the house in which she was hoping to find at least a family member. "Alright, I'm gonna go in and see what I can find. You three stay out here and see if that dude with the gun is following us." she instructed as she walked up and opened the front door of the house.

"Mom?" Mae called out as she walked into the living room. From there, she could see the kitchen, but no one else was to be seen. She thought that her father may still be at his work place in the Ham Panther, but her mother was here this morning... Mae walked up the stairs to the second floor, knocking on her parents' bedroom door. "Mom? It's me, Mae," she called out again. No response. "Damnit... Where could she have gone??"  
She searched the rest of the household before stepping back through the front door. "No luck?" Kari asked her.  
"Nada. Maybe she somehow made it up to the church she works at; She's not usually someone to go into the centre unless she really needs to," Mae replied. "If not there, then..." she cut off her own thought before notioning the other three to follow her.

...  
Meanwhile, back out in the Food Donkey parking lot, three lone people walked along toward the store's side. Gregg, Angus and Bea had woken up from their nap in the shelter and saw the other three missing. They found the note that Kari had left, to which Bea crumpled it up and threw it down, and rushed out without a moment's hesitation. The winter evening environment bit at their bodies, with Bea clinging onto her heavy black coat. "Mae!! Kari!! Germ!!" Gregg called out, his hands cupped in front of his maw.  
"They c-couldn't have gone far," spoke a shivering Bea.  
"You gonna be alright?" Angus asked her. "It's only gonna get colder out here with the sun setting."  
"Yeah, I-I'll be fine."  
"I have no problem having you huddle up on me to keep warm."  
"I, uh... Thanks? But I'm good. We should hurry into town, though."

With that, they headed onto the street toward the centre on the search for Mae and the others... As well as some warmth.

As the sun continued to set, the three wanderers from the underground shelter made their way across the lot before getting to the main street leading into Towne Centre. As they trudged through the slushy snow on the sidewalk, they approached the Clik-Clak Diner. It appeared empty as they began to pass by the building, but then suddenly a goat man shambled out from behind the diner. His eyes were bloodshot and his breath was raspy with a growling sound under it, clear signs of the mania. But he seemed different; Much of his light grey fur was missing and his skin was reddened. On top of that, his right arm exhibited many orangish yellow boils and the skin seemed to be distorted and almost crimson red.  
"Oh, what the-" Gregg started before the the frenzied goat rushed at him and swung the reddened arm toward him. The fox managed to duck under, quickly pulling out his spare knife and slashing at his goat's knee, causing him to fall onto the ground. However, this seemed to hardly slow him down as he got back up and rushed ahead, shifting his focus onto Bea as he pushed up against the gator in an attempt to tackle and pin her down. Bea struggled to keep herself standing up, pushing back up against the berserk goat before Angus suddenly grabbed a hold on him from behind, wrapping an arm around his neck and applying enough force to start restricting blood flow and choking him out.  
The attacking stranger struggled for a few seconds before his movements slowed and he was quickly subdued into unconsciousness, going limp in the bear's grasp. Angus let him down onto the ground against the diner wall as the three examined him.

"What is up with this guy...?" Gregg wondered, getting a closer look at that arm and its unusual, infected-looking features. He crouched down before an acrid, rotten smell assaulted his nose. The fox jumped to a standing position, covering his nose. "Geez, is that from him?" he questioned.  
"I don't think that's him..." Bea commented, gesturing toward the alley between the Snack Falcon and the wall of the trolley tunnel entrance. Angus was already standing near the alley as the fox walked over, his eyes widening at the sight.  
"What the shit?" He stared down at what appeared to be a pile of red, goopy flesh. On top of that, multiple tendrils of the same red color extended out from it, laying motionless, and there was a rather large yellow bulbous shape protruding out of its side. Gregg gagged at the sight, backing up alongside Angus. "Let's just... Keep moving."

The other two agreed, starting to walk along the sidewalk again while silently pondering what in the world they just saw. But before they could even get far pass by the trolley tunnel entrance, they all heard a whispery "Psst!" behind them, turning their heads toward the entrance. They saw a much shorter bear lady in a pink hoodie gesturing them down to the tunnel. The three exchanged glances before following Selmers down the staircase into the trolley station. There were at least 15 other townsfolk in the station, conversating with each other, some tending to another's wounds. "We've all been holed up down here all afternoon. We're sure there are more people out there who haven't gone feral or been ripped up, but... Going out there and searching isn't the greatest idea..." Selmers explained. There was a barrel fire within the station, with some of the survivors staying near the open flame. Some of them had spots of dried blood, and some of them had subtly shellshocked expressions on them. "We've, uh... Seen some shit," the shorter bear noted.

After conversating with some of the underground survivors, the three new arrivals spotted an older, bigger dark blue cat in a light green jacket. They recognized Mae's mother, Candy Borowski, and walked up to her, catching her attention as they approached.  
"Oh, you're all okay!" Candy Borowski spoke with a mix of surprise and relief in her voice, but then a sense of worry replaced that relief, "I-Is Mae alright? Where is she? I'd go down to find her, but there are far too many of... them."  
Gregg and Angus exchanged a quick glance as Bea sighed. "We're looking for her. We had to go out of our way to hide as everything fell apart, but she left to look for you and... God, it's a mess. I'm sorry," the gator explained. "We'll find her, though, don't worry."  
"You're risking your safety for her?" Candy asked before looking down. "I... I'd do the same, but I know she'd be just as devastated if I were to be harmed as I would be if it happened to her. Please, be careful."

"You lads alright?" Asked an unfamiliar male voice as the four conservators looked toward the source. They saw an adult dark grey mouse man in a blue unzipped hoodie. "C'mon, the old cat dude's helping make tacos for the group. We hauled in enough stuff for them."  
"Oh, nice. Though uh, do we know you?" Gregg found himself asking, to which the mouse gave a smile.  
"Name's Mike."


	6. The Death of Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae and co. get up to the church in search of survivors. But within the sanctioned halls of the building, an unspeakable horror awaits them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Decapitation, joint dislocation, and (not detailed) vomiting.

...

"HYAAGH!!" Mae cried out as she swung her bat at the side of a mania-stricken horse person. A loud crack could be heard as the horse fell onto his side, scowling as his gaze was fixed on Mae. "Stay down... Please..." the cat panted as she guided Kari, Germ and Lori past the struggling berserker. It didn't seem like he was going to get up.  
The group were at the top of the church hill steps, with the church building in view. They could see that some of the stained glass windows were shattered, with the large front doors stuck open. They could also see several lines of blood leading into the treeline next to the church. "Crap...! C'mon!" Mae ushered, rushing toward the building. But as she and the others got near the front door, she felt a feeling of dread; it felt as though something was watching her from the treeline where the blood trails led. She shook her head and went inside to search for anyone else.

They saw that the front hallway was empty, but there were patches of blood across the floor and walls. The help desk where Mae's mother usually worked was also empty. The four walked cautiously down the hall, with Germ breaking off momentarily to try opening the sanctuary doors. They were locked, and it didn't sound like anybody was inside. They got to the back, where the desk was. Fortunately, it appeared that their footsteps were heard, as a soft feminine voice called out from the storage room in the back. "W-Who's there? Are you... Normal?"  
"Pastor K?? Oh my God, it's you!" Mae greeted enthusiastically.  
"Mae Borowski?" The pastor asked, opening the door and seeing the cat and her friends. Lori waved at the light blue bird.  
"Holy crap, it's so nice to see someone normal around here!" the cat exclaimed. "You uh, wouldn't have happened to see mom, have you?" she asked.  
"Your mother? If I had to guess, she's probably down at that--" Kate began before they all heard a thump against the nearby unbroken window. They turned their heards to see a large, distorted silhouette in the multi-colored stained glass. They then saw a tendril extend out of its left side, splitting off into three smaller tendrils near the end. Suddenly, the bigger arm tendril reeled back before punching into the glass. The lower half of the tall window broke into several large colored pieces, revealing an 8-foot tall being that appeared to be constructed of distorted red flesh. It had a wide yet short torso, with a mess of at least 10 swirly tentacles under it. Its head seemed elongated, with two bulbous yellow eyes and a long mandible and beak that seemed to split vertically instead of horizontally. On top of its head, there sat a pair of sharp horns.

"O-Oh... Oh God... What the FU-" Mae cried out before the beast grabbed her with its arm, wrapping its 'fingers' around her as it lifted her up before tossing her aside, causing her to fall onto her wrist first and roll to a stop, with an audible snap being heard right at the landing. She yelped in pain, holding her wrist as she tried to get up. The cat had dropped her bat upon getting grabbed, and could only watch as the three lesser tendrils open up at the base, revealing a tooth-covered hole at the end of the arm tendril. Luckily, Lori rushed to the bat and quickly swung down at the arm. The beast yelled out in pain as its arm contorted, the hole at the end blasting out a spike of white bone-like material. Thankfully, the strike caused it to miss Mae, instead landing and sticking itself into the wall next to her.  
"What is this thing?? WHAT IS THIS THING??" Germ, for seemingly the first time ever, found himself in a complete panic as he pushed himself against one of the walls of the hallway, keeping his distance.  
The beast flicked its arm toward Kari, smacking the fox onto the ground. But then it quickly turned toward Pastor K. The bird gasped as those yellow eyes stared her down. "Pastor K, run!!" Mae cried out, managing to stand up, but her knees buckled as a pain shot up the arm that her snapped wrist was. But the pastor was frozen with fear, as were the others. The otherworldly being's sideways beak-like mouth opened, with the bird able to see multiple tentacle-like tongues and rows of sharp teeth.

"Stop!!" Lori cried out, picking up Mae's bat and swinging at the creature's back in desperation. It took blow after blow, but took no care as its mouth closed around Kate's neck, causing her to give out a gurgled cry of pain.  
"NO!!" Mae cried out as the pastor struggled, the beast's mouth fully encapsulating the bird's neck, its teeth sinking into it and causing blood to flow both onto her attire and into her windpipe, causing her to choke and gurgle in the crimson fluid. Before the situation could fully be assessed, the mouth opened up slightly before slamming closed again, and an assortment of crunches and splatter could be heard.

The pastor's body and head fell separately.

The sight induced shock, dread, and nausea into Mae all at once, churning her stomach and mind. Her vision blurred around the edges as she stared at the bloody body. Her gaze was then fixed on the monster who was now staring at her. She could've sworn that it spoke something to her, but her focus was cut off by Kari screaming bloody murder, the other three sprinting out of the building. The beast gave a brief growl before crawling away, leaving out of the same window it burst in through, not looking behind as it crawled back into the treeline. Mae's shaky legs buckled fully, causing her to fall to a kneeling position, staring bug-eyed ahead.

Blood surrounded Mae. Her pastor friend laid motionless, with her head at her own feet, and a puddle of red grew from the neck. The cat's own left wrist was bent at an unnatural angle.

Kari, Germ and Lori stood panting outside of the church, catching their breath as their hearts raced. As their focus was regained from their panic, they looked around and failed to find Mae, meaning she was still in the building alone. "Mae!! What're you--" Kari called out before the three heard growling and snarling from the staircase, turning and seeing a group of five crazed people, each of different species, climbing the stairs up onto the hill. They all had patches of missing fur, red skin and boils adorning their bodies. Germ and Kari braced themselves, with Lori taking a step back as the feral-acting group pushed up on them. One of them tripped over the already injured horse person at the top of the stairs. Two of them clambered over each other trying to reach Kari as another one pinned Germ down, trying to claw at him as the bird tried to push it off.  
Lori, still clutching the baseball bat from the fight with the flesh monster, held it horizontally to act as a brace as a berserk grey cat got to her. The mouse managed to keep her footing, but only barely. Fortunately, Lori's struggle was cut short as a yellow-furred hand suddenly whipped the side of the berserk cat stranger's neck with the back end of a blade. The mouse opened her eyes and saw Gregg in front of her, with Angus knocking the heads of Kari's attackers together and Bea keeping Germ's one attacker on the ground. The gator managed to grab its arm and pull it up enough to cause a snap at the shoulder. The immobilizing pain ensured it wouldn't get up.

"Geez...! Your timing is impeccable..." Kari panted as Germ stood back up, several scratches on the front of his coat. The berserkers who weren't too injured to move fled the area.  
"We heard screams as we got to the center of town. Is everyone--" Angus started before looking past the other three and not seeing Mae. "Where's...?"  
"Still in the church. Um..." The white fox started before giving a shaky sigh. She found herself unable to form the words to describe what transpired in that front hallway. Her lack of words worried Gregg, Angus and Bea as they rushed toward the cracked-open front door, with the bear barging into the blood-stained front hall of the building. Before he could even call out for Mae, the three spotted her at the end of the hall, kneeled down near someone. As they approached the scene, they collectively realized that the cat was in front of the cadaver of Pastor Kate, with the head no longer atop her neck, but rather at her feet. Mae's own eyes were unfocused as Angus slowly approached her from behind.  
Gregg's stance became shaky before he rushed over to one of the walls, hunching over and hurling. The sight of all the blood, exposed neck tissue, and the bird's sightless, blank eyes behind the glasses was all too much for the fox.

"Mae..." Angus spoke softly, but it seemed to snap the feline out of the trance she was in. Mae quickly looked up at the bear, her eyes watering as she experienced a delayed reaction to what she had witnessed. She considered the pastor a relatively close friend, with a bond forming over discussions of God and other such forces following the cult incident. Seeing her simply die in front of her in such a swift fashion... The watergates opened as she one-armed hugged tight onto Angus, shaking with heavy breathing as she tried to suppress her sobs. Angus helped her up on her feet, but they seemed locked in an embrace for the moment. Bea stood nervously, rubbing one of her shoulders. Gregg panted, his stomach still churning uncomfortably.  
It was then that Bea noticed something; Mae was only hugging with her right arm, the other staying mostly down. And on the left arm that was down, there was an unnaturally twisted wrist. "Oh shit. Angus, you might wanna take a look at her hand," the gator pointed out as the bear got Mae off of her a bit, leaving her sniffling and panting as he looked at the injured hand.

"Ohh. Yeah, dislocated," Angus diagnosed. Mae attempted to explain what happened to her hand, as well as the monster she saw, but all that came out was quivering and crying. "Sssh. We'll get it fixed up," the bear promised as they all got back outside.

"Hey, nerds!" Gregg called out to Kari, Germ and Lori. He was trying to liven the mood, despite the sharp taste of vomit and images of a headless body being burned in his senses. "You didn't happen across the trolley tunnel, huh?" the fox asked, getting shaking heads in return.  
"Mae got us to go a long way around Towne Centre rather than rushing in," Kari cited. "Sounded like a good idea at the time."  
"Eh, I could see it. Weird stuff down there," Gregg shrugged as Angus set Mae down to a sitting position.  
"I'm gonna need to reset it," the bear stated, mentioning Mae's wrist, gently moving her arm to a position where the elbow could rest on him. Kari and Gregg averted their gaze as a low snap could be heard, followed by a pained gasp from the cat. "Alright, that should do for now."  
"You alright?" Lori asked as Mae clenched and relaxed her fingers.  
Mae finally found the composure to speak. "It hurts, but at least I can move it," she responded. Bea would go on to explain the holdout in the tunnel, and she brought up that they should get back down there as the sun had almost entirely disappeared into the horizon. With everyone in agreement, all seven of them began to walk down the steps and into the tunnel entrance.

"So, what even happened?" Bea asked. For a second, she only received silence until Mae spoke up.  
"I-It was this huge monster thing that looked like it was made of multiple bodies? Or something... But like, it just bit the pastor on the neck, and just... took her head off."  
"Hmm. That's... a lot to take in, really. At the very least, if it quickly took the head off, she didn't suffer for long. If that makes it any better at all," the gator shrugged.  
"Eh. Kinda," Gregg agreed, with Germ nodding.  
"A lot of people feel that way about this sorta thing," Angus interjected. "Am I the only one who's afraid of a quick death? Like, something longer could be more painful, yeah, but at least you could get your last rites out. Get anything you want off your mind before you're all gone. With something quick, you're just... bam, gone. Done with." Everyone would give the bear an unsure look. "... Sorry."


	7. Trolley Hideout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovering from an unsavory sight, Mae and her friends go back down to the trolley tunnel hideout. Mae admits that she's experiencing things similar to when they all took on the cult last month.

Within a few seconds of being in the tunnel hideout, Mae found herself in a bear hug from her mother. The daughter explained that she and her friends had to hide out in the hidden fallout shelter, apologizing that she had her parents so worried. The two cats sat down near the rail where the water flowed passively beside them.  
"I uh, know about Aunt Molly. Geez..." Mae started solemnly. "She didn't deserve that."  
"No one does, sweetie. But, the city council members told me that she gave them and some others the chance to escape and get down here," Candy explained.  
"Holy crap," the younger of the two said with surprise. "That makes her like, a fallen hero or something."  
Eventually, an old male cat would go over and sit with the two.  
"Oh, hey dad," Mae greeted. "Thought you were still at work."  
"I got back in town when I caught wind of what was going on. Wanted to make sure everyone was safe," Stan Borowski explained.  
"What, you just left?" the younger asked, a subtle smile coming to her mouth.  
"Pssh. I know what you're thinking."  
Mae and her dad shared a chuckled before Mae suddenly winced and put her hand on her head. A piercing, throbbing pain racked at her skull.  
"Ugh... Feel like my brain's gonna implode..." she shook her head before she stood up. "I'm gonna go over to the others, see how they're doing. Distract myself from this killer headache."  
"You sure you don't wanna rest a while? It's no doubt been a long day," her mom offered.  
"I'll be fine. I won't be too far away," Mae assured.  
"I need to get back to that stove in the pierogi stand anyways; Trying to whip up tacos for all of us down here with it," her dad stated.

The cat walked over to the barrel fire, where Gregg and Angus were standing, passively talking to three teenagers: A raccoon, an orange cat and a blue rabbit all wearing dark attire. Bea was also close to the barrel, but she didn't seem to be in the ongoing conversation.  
"... Whatever it may be, I'm still on the fritz of calling it something 'demonic.' Probably a really severe strain of rabies." It seemed like Angus was talking about the source of the outbreak.  
"Rabies doesn't just spread across an entire town overnight," the raccoon argued. "Not to mention that we saw someone turn crazy without any contact with anyone else."  
"I-" the bear started before sighing. There didn't seem to be anything that could change the teens' minds.  
"Hey," Mae interjected. "Uh. You guys mind coming over real quick?" she asked, looking over to the blue gator. "You too, Bea. If that's alright.  
"Eh. Long as I don't freeze over there." The gator replied as she, Gregg and Angus followed her to a spot in the room that was a short distance from the rest of the survivors.

"Alright, so uh... The headaches are back. Like, really hard," Mae explained.  
"I thought we chalked that up to being stress headaches. Like, you sometimes got them at work. You saw someone lose their head, Mae," Bea retorted.  
"I know, I know, but like... It just doesn't feel like any migraine. It's like... special? It almost feels the same like the time we..." the cat started before a quick breath was drawn to her, and her eyes widened. Angus would raise a brow.  
"Mae? What's up?" Gregg asked, trying to snap her out of the sudden trance she seemed to be in.

"Like the time we were dealing with the cult."  
The other three's eyes widened almost in sync. Had they not already seen the cult of the Black Goat and heard their tales before cutting them off from the outside world, they would've called Mae crazy, but...  
"... You know how they mentioned that, without sacrificing to the thing in the hole, some disaster would come?" Mae mentioned.  
"Ohhhh..." Bea started.  
"... Shit," Gregg finished.  
"Are you saying that the uh, Black Goat or whatever is causing this?" Angus inquired.  
"You got any other ideas, big guy?" the cat retorted.  
"It's probably like... Some kinda disease? It seems to mutate the people its affecting, so like... I dunno, I'm not a biologist."  
"Hm. Maybe, but how coincidental is it that I start experiencing the same things I did back then."  
"You're just really stressed and tired, Mae. You should go rest up."  
"I'll rest when I'm dead," the cat snapped, realizing she had raised her voice to the point that some strangers' heads were turned toward her. "... Alright yeah maybe sleeping is a good idea."

With that agreement, they all found whatever area was the most comfortable and began to rest up for the evening, awaiting mealtime and talking about more casual topics to relax their minds, and eventually they would all get to sleep on the provided mats and sleeping bags. Better than the hard concrete floor, at least.

...Mae awoke abruptly with a sharp breath in, letting it out as she saw that she was back in the trolley tunnel. The feline had found herself in that strange astral reality in her sleep yet again, although this time the details were fuzzy. No jazzy music ensemble to find this time. All she remembered in her wake was that she saw the outline of the monster she saw the previous day, and it loomed over her defenseless friends...  
Oddly, she seemed to be laying on her side, with Kari laying sound asleep next to her, and the cat had an arm wrapped around the white fox. "When did I...?" Mae quietly questioned as she carefully moved to a sitting up position. A few of the other residents were already up and moving about, some of them talking in small pockets amongst themselves, their conversations echoing lightly in the spacious tunnel. Mae stood up with a stretch, seeing Lori up ahead with her father Mike.  
"He did a number on you, huh?" Mike asked the smaller mouse, having unwrapped the bandage on her wrist. He had a small medical kit and was cleaning off the bite wound as Mae walked up besides them. "Oh, well if it isn't Mae Borowski," Mike greeted. "Lori here was telling me how you saved her. You really know your way around a bat, huh?"  
"C'mon, dad, is now really the time to bring that up?" Lori interjected as her dad gave a chuckle.  
"But yeah, thanks a million for that," the older one said, carefully swabbing the teen's wrist with disinfectant. Lori would wince, a sharp burn coming to her as the disinfectant was applied to her slightly healed bite.  
"Well, uh... I was just wondering, what's our plan here?" Mae spoke. "Like, this shelter hardly has a good amount of supplies."  
"It's sort of up to the town council to decide what we do, unless anyone gets any better ideas. Speaking of those guys, they're sorta out on a supply run," Mike mentioned, wrapping a new clean bandage over Lori's wrist. "Aaalright kiddo. Should be good to go." With that, the teen stood up. "Stay down here in the station at least, won'tcha?" he asked, with Lori giving a nod in response.

The mouse teen and the cat adult walked over to another part of the station, with the defaced mural in view. The workers depicted on the mural, all but crossed out with black paint, with the words 'NUKE POSSUM SP--' written in that same bold black ink. "It's like I said, Mae. This place is a neverending horror movie," Lori stated. "I was weirded out by what you said about a, uh, cult back then. But honestly, after that, anything's possible I guess."  
"Hm..." Mae looked intently up at the mural. A myriad of thoughts rushed to her, sending her mind into a scramble... "Say, I think I'm gonna go up for some fresh air. I'll be right on the top of the stairs," she admitted herself.  
"Um... Be careful??" Lori advised, slightly confused at Mae's sudden decision as the feline made her way up the steps toward the station's exit.

Mae stood alone outside of the tunnel entrance, a soft gust of winter wind brushed against her tan jacket, which now exhibited numerous dark red spots along the front. Her attention was seemingly drawn in the direction of the distant woods...  
Past the fence next to the expansive parking lot...  
Towards the abandoned coal mine...  
She heard a low droning hum noise. It sounded like it was all around her, in her head, but it felt like it was coming from the direction of the abandonded, caved in mine. The noise intensified as her own vision blurred slightly as an urge to take the trek back to the mine racked her mine. She took one step forward on the sidewalk...  
But then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She was simultaneously snapped out of her trance and incredibly startled as she quickly looked back with one of her own handpaws raising, claws emerging from between her digits. "Woah! Calm down, Mae, it's me!" a familiar yellow fox yelped, putting his own hands up.  
"O-Oh," Mae retracted her claws. "Geez. Sorry, Gregg," she apologized.  
"Yeesh. What the heck are you even doing up here?" Gregg inquired.  
"Just uh, getting some fresh air?" Mae responded unsurely. She saw her fox friend's raised eyebrow and sighed. "Would you either hear that, or that the evil hole demon is like, calling me back to that mine where we indirectly killed those old cultists?" she asked, "And that at this point I'm almost like 90% sure that it's causing all of, well, this."  
"Under literally any under circumstance, I'd call you crazy. Angus probably still would now. But... Well, we've seen more than enough, I guess we can't rule it out," Gregg supposed as the pair walked back inside, down the steps.

The pair found Angus, Bea and Germ together, approaching the three. They didn't seem to be discussing anything, and the green bird was casually eating cereal from a plastic pack. "Yo," Mae greeted.  
"Mornin'," Angus waved, taking a sip of fresh water from a cup.  
"Heya," Germ joined in.  
"..." Bea was silent, seemingly lost in thought.  
"...?" Mae raised a brow. "Hey, Bea? Earth to Beatrice Santello," the cat called to her with a hint of her signature sarcasm mixed in. The gator seemed to lightly snap back to reality.  
"Oh, hey, sorry," the gator apologized. "Was just thinking. Wondering if this whole, uh, thing is only going on in Possum Springs, or if it's like... Nationwide or something. Even global. As weird as it may sound, I'm actually hoping it's just here. What with dad moving out... Who knows what'd happen to him." Bea caught herself in her long speech. "Sorry, I'm rambling."  
"I get it. At least he's safe, hopefully," Mae consuled.  
"Hopefully. You get a good enough sleep last night?" Angus interjected.  
"Uhhh... I mean, I got sleep, but... I had another one of those weird, like, astral dreams or something. Like the ones I was having last month and I met God that one time?" the cat explained. The others gave her a certain look.


	8. The Highway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A town council member returns to the hideout with bad news. Two members had been killed by those afflicted with this mania, and another was missing. Mae elects to find Cathleen, with her friends joining along.

The others were looking toward her. Mae wasn't 100% able to decipher what their mostly blank, slightly surprised? expressions meant. "That's not good, is it?" Gregg finally asked, concern seeping into his usually chipper voice.  
"Maybe not. It's like... I have a sorta crazy theory, but--" the feline started, but was interrupted by a single set of footsteps at the top of the steps leading out of the station. The five, as well as a few other residents, turned their gazes to the top of the staircase to see a middle-aged red bird in a white shirt and tie. They recognized him as Gary, one of the members of the town council. He panted, out of breath as he raced down the steps as some people - including a now awake Kari S. - went to him, asking him if he was okay. Mae and the others approached cautiously as the bird caught his breath.  
"You alright?" Selmers would ask Gary as everyone noticed the somewhat fresh stains of blood along the side of his attire. "That ain't... Your blood, is it?"  
"Where are the others? I thought all four of you had left?" a random goat resident spoke up.  
"O-Oh god..." Gary finally spoke between his panting. "We were going along the highway, when this... unholy monster rushed us from the side. I couldn't even get a glimpse of the thing before it tore Andrew apart. Colleen is also dead, ripped apart by those maniacs... Cathleen ran for her life, as did I, but I fear that she may be lost..." the bird explained.

"Oh my god," Gregg said in a whisper-talk amongst the group of five he was in as the rest of the crown began to chatter, bombarding the council member with questions. Just then, Kari happened to look back and notice the slightly secluded five overhearing everything, making her way towards them. "Hey, Kari. You heard it too, huh? Giant monster?" Gregg practically interrogated the other fox.  
"Y-Yeah. Um... I believe I might have seen the monster, actually. Or something similar... Back up in the church. Mae, Germ, Lori and I all saw it," Kari recalled.  
"Same thing that killed the pastor, I'm willing to bet," Bea brought up, trying to be as straightforward with such a grim fact as she could.  
"Ohh right. I tried blocking that whole thing out of my memory," Germ admitted.

Suddenly, Mae spoke up toward Gary and the crowd. "We should find Cathleen," she declared, drawing attention toward her.  
"Mae?" Angus questioned her sudden call to action.  
"We can't just leave her to die!" the feline continued. She wasn't willing to let someone else go the way of the pastor. Some of the others around understood, but were obviously afraid of taking a step outside in the current environment.  
"You're wanting to search for her?" Gary inquired.  
"Mae, honey..." the cat's mother, Candy, spoke in a concerned voice. The Borowskis had just reunited, and now the daughter seemed like she was up and leaving. But, she knew that once Mae has to sights set on something, it was nigh impossible to stop her.  
"Yer gonna getcher self killed," An older crocodile, Mr. Penderson, said. It still didn't sway her.

"Well, if Mae's going out there, she isn't going alone," Bea joined in.  
"Damn right," Gregg spoke up.  
"Safety in numbers!" Germ added.  
"What's left of the normal people around here deserve to be protected," Kari stated dutifully.  
"Leave it to Mae to charge head first into stuff like this..." Angus spoke softer than the rest.

"At the very least, I ask that you stay safe. I'm sure Cathleen will appreciate your efforts." Gary felt slightly on-edge about sending this ragtag group of people out, but the police force was all but decimated early into the outbreak, and no one else offered to go out there. After some light preparation, the six of them exited the station, going into the wintry environment toward the highway, avoiding the gaze of several crazed individuals as they walked.

But after walking a few blocks, they all suddenly heard hurried footsteps approaching from behind. They all turned quickly, suspecting that an afflicted person was rushing them down, but they were surprised to see that it was actually Lori!  
"Woah, what's the kid doing here?" Gregg asked as the mouse caught up with the group, her breathing a bit heavy.  
"Lori? What're you doing here?" Mae questioned the teen, "And uh, how did you get out of the station?"  
"Snuck out... _*huff*_ " the mouse replied, catching her breath. "Didn't wanna get bored, cooped up in there, heh," she admitted. She was holding a stained baseball bat in her hand, offering it to Mae. "You forgot this, by the way." The feline took the bat, thanking the teen.  
"You're actually insane, you know? Go back. Now." Angus instructed sternly, acting like a father figure in the moment. He was willing to do a lot for this group, but the last thing he wanted was a teenager's blood on his hands because they irresponsibly let her tag along.  
"Mr. Delaney, please," Kari interrupted. "She came all the way out here with us, we can't send her back unsupervised."  
"Great, now we're responsible for her safety... I swear, who knows what'll happen if she gets hurt under our watch," Bea sighed. "C'mon, kid."

With that, they continued on their way, toward the bridge and the highway.

The group traveled along the street, approaching the bridge that would lead them toward the highway. As they got onto the icy bridge, Germ looked down toward the ravine below. "Germ?" Gregg asked, noticing his downward attention.  
"Don't mind me. Just hopin' Rabies is alright," the bird excused.  
"Rabies?" Kari questioned. Being the newest of the group, she was the least aware of everyone else's experiences in the month prior.  
"He has a little possum friend called Rabies. He's like, the best possum someone could ask for," Mae explained.  
"Um... Uh-huh..." the white fox replied. "Well, on our way back, we can greet Rabies if we see him."

They all continued along, the late morning sun helping (even if barely) to warm them up in the cold environment. Everyone had their winter clothes on, although Angus was still in his suit and tie. 'What? These are my cold clothes,' he would tell the rest of them.  
The road past the bridge would reveal a small lake beside the bottom of a distant hill, with a few abandoned factories near it. "Possum Lake," Mae pointed out. "Grandad took me fishing there once before he passed. It was actually pretty fun. Though, I just had more of a good time being with him than having to hold some slimy fish," she reminisced.  
"Honestly, if it wasn't so cold, a nice relaxing swim would do me a world of good about now," Kari mused.  
"Oh definitely." Mae would give a nod in agreement, with most of the others feeling the same way. The cat suddenly remembered something, "Hey, Bea," she called, catching a side glance from the gator. "I don't think we've ever swam together."  
One of Bea's brows would raise at that statement. "Y'know, like. I've swum together with Gregg, Angus and Casey at least once before," Mae would continue.  
"Again, I'm cold-blooded. Even like, lukewarm water would probably put me into shock," the gator would remind her.  
"Hm. Good point."  
"... That and I wouldn't be caught dead in a bikini."  
"Theeere it is," the cat put a hand on her hip as Bea rolled her eyes.

As they began walking alongside the proper highway road, there weren't any cars travelling along the barren asphalt road. The emptiness began to cast a sense of dread in their minds...  
"My word, I've never seen a big road like this just... empty. The highway that cuts through my hometown is always busy," Kari commented.  
"Where are you from, anyway?" Mae brought up, trying to break up the erie silence with a conversation. "Just curious."  
"Gazertown."  
"Gazertown? Like, next to Yolk City? That's way out east," the feline mentioned. "Ugh, hate to think about the long road trip you had to take to come here, only for... well, this."

Those two continued chatting as the group could see the Ham Panther in the distance. It still seemed active, with cars pulling into and out of the parking lot in front of the store... only, none of the ones pulling out were taking the turn towards Possum Springs. Although, a bit closer, the group could a patch of crimson on the snowy ground up ahead, next to a vaguely body-shaped lump that was halfway burried in the white snow. Everyone froze up at the sight.  
"Oh, shit. Is that...?" Gregg spoke quietly as he and Mae slowly approached the unknown figure. Upon further inspection, they could see the unmoving body of an older, chubby dark blue bear. Andrew from the council laid in the snow, dead with a massive bite wound on his abdomen. There was also a solid trail dug into the snow, leading toward the outskirts of town, as well as two sets of footprints, one leading toward another red puddle and the body of a fox on the other side of the road, and the other leading toward the Ham Panther. "That thing must've gotten him and travelled back toward the town," the yellow fox inferred. The others inspected the body of Colleen the fox on the other side of the wide road, although Kari kept Lori from getting a direct view of it. The orange fox lady's body torn at the extremities, with a few strange rope-like growths growing on the wounds. Soon, the group got back together.  
  
"So. Safe to say that Cathleen probably went toward or into the Ham Panther. Going inside would've been a good bet, since it doesn't seem like it's been attacked," Angus explained.  
"So, we're gonna go in and look for her," Mae implied.  
"Wellll... It's more like Kari and Lori should go in there," Bea said. "We're not gonna go in there all bloody." It was true that Mae, Gregg, Angus, Bea and even Germ had a few bloodstains scattered on their clothes from previous encounters with the people afflicted with the madness overtaking the town behind them. Lori had some too before, but they were cleaned off in the tunnel river the previous night.  
"Sounds good. If anyone should ask, I'll tell them that I'm uh... a babysitter?" Kari guessed.  
"I'm 14," Lori casually brought up.  
"You still can't be out and about without adult supervision."  
The mouse just shrugged, deciding not to tell the fox that she regularly spends days alone as her dad worked. With that, the two went on their way.


	9. A Remnant of Them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Separated, and still on the highway, Mae and co. encounter a survivor from the cult. Conway Mayweather listened as his friends and acquaintances died in the mine after the cave-in, and now he swears revenge. Not everyone walks away unscathed as the group flees and returns to the trolley tunnel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "---" on its own in a line signifies the start and end of a flashback.

"... Geez. Poor dudes," Mae consuled as the two girls gained distance from the group.  
"Yeah. No one deserves what they got, yet it's probably happened a whole lot in town," Gregg inferred. "This is some serious bullshit. Why here? Why us??" the fox questioned. For a moment, no one seemed to be able to respond. Such a scenario as this was simply beyond explanation.  
Until the feline spoke up, "What other explanation is there than the Black Goat?" This theory garnered everyone else's attention. "Earlier, back in the station, I felt same sensation I felt when we were trying to hunt a ghost down. He... It... Whatever it is, it's calling me back down there. I don't know what it wants, but--"

"What's it matter what He wants?" The five of them heard an unfamiliar, low-tone masculine voice from behind. They all turned around to see a black-hooded figure, wearing what seemed like a thick black robe, contrasting greatly against the white snow and blue sky as he rather casually held a rifle in a muzzle-down position. Gregg immediately began to reach into his pocket, to which Angus stopped him with a light grasp on the elbow.  
"Calm down for a moment, Bug," Angus muttered before looking straight toward the hooded figure. "Who are you? Are you part of that... group?" the bear inquired, not trying to start anything casual like he did with Eide back in the park last month.  
The figure wasn't responsive for a moment, prompting the bear to open his mouth in an attempt to further his questions, but then the stranger finally spoke up. "Mayweather. Conway Mayweather," he introduced, flipping the hood of his robe off, revealing himself to be a middle-aged possum man. "As for the 'group', I was a part of it. Until you left them trapped underground."  
The other five had a collective feeling of dread come over them, tensing up slightly. "Hey, listen buddy," Gregg spoke up, trying to keep his voice from shaking at all. "We wouldn't have done that if we were given a choice. But your dumbass friend tried to kill us on the way out!"

"And it led to you caving in the entire mine?" Conway raised his voice. "I don't believe that for a goddamn moment. I was on patrol. I watched you follow Eide in from a distance, and after that, the cave-in happened. And you all got out scott-free," the possum growled. He let out a low sigh. "Rickie was a friend of mine. David was a friend of mine. Eide was... Well, mh, whatever. When the cave-in happened, I tried for weeks to find a way down there without getting trapped, even camping out just to stay nearby. I never did reach Rickie and the others, nor could I ever get a response when I called out to them, and I could just imagine them trapped down there--" he droned on.  
Suddenly, an extremely aggravated growl came from Bea of all people, her eyes widening and pupils shrinking. "Enough with your guilt-tripping bullshit!" her low gruffy tone gave way to a mixed bag of annoyance and anger. Seems that trying to put her through a guilt trip was a trigger for the gator. "Do you know how many people they killed? Innocent damn people. Screw it, Angus, I agree with you," she spoke, with Angus' ears perking ever-so-slightly at the mention of his name. "Those old assholes deserved to die. And I would've killed them myself if I was given the choice."

A particularly heavy silence rung out after that.  
"I never was truly proud of what we did. The souls we gave up for Him," Conway resumed, his voice low. "But none of that matters now. Whether or not He is causing this whole mess no longer concerns me. I've experienced the death of faith. All that concerns me..." the possum raised his rifle a bit, lifting the bolt handle up and back, before slamming it back forward and down. The five of them standing in front of him froze up, "... is retribution for my friends."

\---  
"Oh my god, Eide..." Conway sighed as another hooded figure with a long snout dragged an orange leather-clad feline male by his heels, heading toward the mine entrance. The cat panted, trying to release himself from the jackal's grip. "You've lost your mind, man. This is a kid you're holding."  
"S-Screw you, I'm not a damn kid..." the captive feline spat. One of his eyes were bruised and a trickle of blood could be seen from his nose. It was obvious that he put up a fight before he was captured.  
"Jesse told me all about him. Casey Hartley. The town ain't gonna make a huge fuss of it, maybe a few missing posters here and there. But they'll forget soon enough, maybe believe he left the town and that will be that," Eide spoke lowly, his voice carrying a growl even as he talked normally. Every time he opened his mouth, Conway could feel a slight shudder run through him. But then, a soft chuckle came from Casey.  
"You're wrong... Soon, this will all come back to bite you in the ass. Gregg'll find out what happen, and you'll have a crossbow bolt sticking right through your eye--" the injured cat monologue before the side of his head was suddenly grabbed.  
"Shut the hell up, kid!" Eide growled, having gripped the cat by his head before reeling back and slamming said head against the stone entrance of the mine tunnel. Conway winced, a hand coming up near his chin at the sight as Casey fell down. The jackal picked the now barely conscious feline up and slung him over his shoulder. "Come. He wishes for spectators," the tall jackal ordered Conway, who hesitantly nodded and proceeded forward into the mine.

\---

"Maybe that Hartley kid was right."

The tip of Conway's rifle barrel had a trail of smoke rising from it. Jeremy Warton had a hand clenched over the far left of his abdomen, a thin hole had opened below his chest, a spot of dark red appearing and growing on his grey coat. The bird's legs shook from the shock before he fell to his knees. "Or, maybe he should've been."  
The others were collectively shocked out of their minds at the sight. This stranger just shot Germ! Germ was shot!! Although it wasn't anywhere vital, he was still clearly in a heap of pain. Burning, stinging pain as he lifted the hand covering the entry hole, seeing his palm covered in crimson. Angus gathered his senses and moved over to help the bird. "You--" Mae finally blurted out the beginning of a question, but...  
"You motherfucker!!" Gregg roared out, rushing toward the possum without a second though, although his attack was interrupted with a whack across the face with the butt of Conway's gun. But just after that, the possum saw Bea coming up to him as well. He fumbled as his green eyes locked with the gator's fury-laced blue eyes, and he attempted to pull back and forth on his rifle's bolt before he was grabbed by the neck before Bea moved her way behind him, working the possum into a chokehold.  
Gregg recovered from the blow he received as he brandished his short blade, holding it up to Conway's neck.

"Okay, woah woah woah," Conway tried speaking in a calm tone, but his voice had a worried crack to it.  
"Hold still and maybe we'll let you walk away," Bea demanded, tightening her grip. Ending a life wasn't entirely on her agenda, but if she had to, there would hardly be hesitation. This whole... scenario was beginning to weigh on Mae more than anybody else. Serious, stressful events such as this weighed on the feline particularly heavily. As she watched on, her vision began to blur as she froze in place. As her gaze shifted back and forth between Conway trying to negotiate a peaceful way out of Bea's grasp and Angus putting pressure on Germ's wound to stop him from bleeding, everything began to swirl around her, feeling less... real. It was all becoming meaningless shapes to her. 'Stop...' she wasn't entirely sure what she was calling out to in her head. The shapes? The fight? Nothing was making sense to her as her whole world spun. She lost track of time, of everything around her.

...

"Oh my god! Jeremy!" Mae could faintly hear a soft-spoken lady's voice in the midst of her shape-riddled delirium.  
"Are you guys okay?? We were gone for like, 10 minutes!" a younger, likely teenage female voice urged. "H-Holy crap... Who--"  
"We'll explain later. We need to get back to the trolley station, now!" A third familiar voice. Male, high-energy, urgent. What was going on...? All she could see were blurred shapes on a background of white and blue, though she paid particular attention to a clump of grey, dark green and red shapes near her, with another big clump of brown and black next to it...

"Mae!" A call from behind suddenly snapped her back to reality, causing her to blink rapidly as everything refocused. She turned toward Bea, who had called her attention. "Geez. You alright?" the gator asked, with concern tracing her voice.  
"Y-Yeah, just kinda... spaced out," Mae tiredly explained. Suddenly, her ears perked as she saw Angus picking up Germ in his arms, carrying him in a cradling position as he, Kari, and Gregg hastefully started their way back toward the town. "... Where's the asshole?" the feline asked, noticing that the possum was no longer around.  
"He managed to get away. Ran toward the outskirts. Kicked the hell out of me," Bea told Mae as the feline noticed the start of a bruise on her snout. "For an old man, he knows how to fight fairly well..."  
"Is that Jeremy guy gonna be alright? Er, Germ, I heard both names," Lori interjected.  
"Hmm... I'm not like a doctor or anything, but nothing vital was hit. He'll probably make it with proper care in the shelter."  
"He was hit here, right?" Lori put a hand up to her own left side, over the oblique muscle. She seemed to... smile a bit, innocently. "Yeah no. No organs there."  
"What, you're an anatomy major at 14?" Mae joked, to which the mouse shrugged.  
"I just kinda casually read about the body and where everything is, y'know? How can I make realistic gore effects without knowing about that kinda stuff?" Lori reasoned.  
"Weird kid," Bea whispered toward Mae.  
"But she's cool," the cat returned the whisper.

Mae, Bea and Lori began making their way back toward Possum Springs. The sun had risen a bit more at this point, but the air was still brisk. "Soo, did you find Cathleen?" Mae questioned.  
"Oh yeah, we did. She was like, way freaked out though. I think she like, swore to not step foot in Possum Springs again. Like, ever," Lori told.  
"Can't blame her. Honestly we all sort of have plenty of reason to do the same, but..." Bea shrugged. "Like, this is our home and stuff. If we just up and leave, where could we go?"  
The three of them got past the bridge, into town proper and heading toward Centre Avenue. "Hey, just checking up, how's your wrist Mae?" Bea asked. "And uh, you too kid. Heard you got a nasty bite."  
Lori did a so-so hand gesture. "Stings, but I'll live," the mouse reassured.  
"Mine's all sore. Not the first time I've dislocated something. Remember that time in scouts, when I decided to climb that tree and ended up falling accidentally and my ankle was like, twisted all to hell?" Mae recalled.  
"Oh godddd..." Bea remembered. "You tried assuring the leader that you were alright, but you were clearly in a lot of pain. I think that's when I coined the term 'Maeday'."  
"Mayday, mayday! Dumbass cat got her ankle broke!" the feline cried jokingly, garnering a chuckle from the gator.  
"That's kinda weird. I see you falling from rooftops all the time and you always seem fine?" Lori piped up.  
"It's different if I'm purposely falling," the cat retorted. It was true, cats like her are great at preventing harm from long falls. If they're able to control themselves in the air.

They got to the centre, approaching the trolley tunnel entrance. It was... oddly quiet as they peaked in. Mae gave a shocked gasp at the sight they were greeted with. Gregg, Angus, Kari and the wounded Germ were the only ones down there now, with the bear trying to patch Germ up with a leftover suture kit and bandage. At least, they were the only ones there that were alive. Mae slowly made her way down the steps, her gaze involuntarily being grabbed by the bodies of strangers from within town. Although there was someone she recognized, an older goat man she knew as Mr. Twigmeyer. Gary from the council was also now a body laced with lacerations. Cathleen was right... That damned blurriness was coming back. And so was that low hum she heard earlier that morning.  
"Mae?" Yet again, the feline was brought back as Kari came up to her. A deep concern could be seen in the fox's bright blue eyes.  
"What... What happened here?" Mae quietly asked.  
"Looks like it was overrun or something. A bunch of those crazy things must've rushed in here," Gregg inferred. "I think plenty of them made it out, probably off to find somewhere else safe."


	10. Back to the Shelter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the trolley tunnel overrun, the band has no choice but to return to the old fallout shelter. Mae struggles with her emotions before they all find an unused cooler with drinks inside.

Before the conversation could be continued, they all heard a low, raspy fit of coughs. They all turned toward the source, seeing a blue-furred bear in a brownish-red sweater, leaning up against a dimly lit wall in the station. Though, he was covered in cuts and claw marks, a puddle of crimson under him, and one of his legs were nearly torn off at the knee. Mae's eyes widened as she recognized the bear, rushing over to him.  
"Mr. Chazokov!" Mae cried urgently, getting over beside him.  
"Mh... Mae Borowski?" the blue bear asked, looking up toward the feline. He seemed barely responsive. The others slowly approached, seeing the state he was in, he seemed certainly hopeless.  
"You sure are... a sight for sore eyes," Chazokov said to Mae, his breathing heavy.  
"We can help you out," the feline urged, her mind racing. She wasn't wanting to watch another person she knew, a friend of hers, die in front of her. "I can help you walk, and uh... The others can patch you up, and..."  
"Beh heh. Nah, I'm afraid I'm done for, kid..." the bear admitted before coughing again. "I'm glad I got to see you again, my little stargazer."  
"Mr. Chazokov..." Mae sniffled, her chest having a pressure put over it as if her heart were going to shatter, "Quit talking like that. You're gonna make me cry..."  
"Sorry. But please, you have to get out of here. It's not safe here anymore, who knows when... _they_ will show up again," Chazokov ushered. He closed his eyes, sighing out before his eyes opened his eyes again tiredly. "If you find Selma, tell her what happened. Me and her were getting close for a while."  
Mae nodded, keeping quiet as she feared talking would open the floodgates that were threatening to break behind her eyes. Chazokov's eyes sleepily closed again. He seemed... content. Not like anything else could be done down here. "Goodbye... Astronomer..."

It was over. He was gone. "Goodbye, astronomer," Mae solemnly returned as she stood up, wiping a few stray tears from under her eyes.  
"Poor man," Lori was the first one to speak up, shaking her head. She knew Chazokov the least, so she wasn't entirely saddened beyond words. "I'm really sorry, Mae," she consoled. Most of the others would share that feeling.  
"So... What now?" Angus asked.  
"We should worry about getting somewhere safe. We heard him, this place is--" Kari started before the group heard a loud thump on the top of the staircase they entered through. It was followed by an oddly... Slimy sound. They all looked up at the source, seeing that a large, fleshy monster with the tentacle legs and one tendril arm, in addition to the split beak mouth, had entered the station.  
"... -unsafe," the white fox finished her statement before the beast let out an alert roar towards the group.

The fleshy beast seemed to focus directly at Mae after its roar had concluded. The feline would've pondered about this, but her thoughts were cut off by a sudden shake in the ground and the sight of the monster suddenly falling into a hole. A sinkhole had opened up right below it, causing it to let out an alarmed yell as its weight caused the ground to collapse out from under it. And now it was stuck.  
"We need to get out, now!" Bea yelled. No need to tell them twice, they all turned and sprinted away, up the opposite staircase. They got outside, going far past the Centre, past the Food Donkey and into the parking lot. It seemed like their destination was back to that old fallout shelter.  
They got to the tunnel entrance on the side of the hill, stopping to catch their breath as Gregg and Bea checked behind them. Seemed like they weren't followed.

Angus wheezed, his legs shaky. "Y-You alright, big guy?" Mae asked him.  
"Yeah... *wheeze* I'll-*huff*-make it..." the bear assured with a weak nod.  
"So that was it, huh? The monster that you guys saw?" Bea questioned Mae and the others who had witnessed the beast firsthand.  
"Yup," Germ groaned as they all walked into the stone tunnel, heading towards the shelter. "It still doesn't feel... Real," the bird commented.  
"You can say that again, man..." Gregg replied, giving a shudder. "Dang thing looked like some sort of alien, or a demon or some shit. What do you make of it, Cap'n?"  
Angus, having recovered just a bit from the long sprint, instinctively perked his rounded ears as he was put on the spotlight. "I... Honestly, what do I even say? It looked like it was like... more than one body, taken apart and put back together to make... that," he said before shrugging. It was beyond natural explanation.  
"It's less about what it is, and more about _how_ it's even alive," Bea added.

They got back to the shelter, taking a seat, except for Angus who helped set Germ onto a soft bedroll. "You gonna be alright?" the bear asked, a sense of soothing care in his voice.  
"Eh," the bird answered. He didn't seem to be in pain, but he was super tired.  
"Tell me if you need anything."  
"Mhm..."

Mae sat over against one of the shelter's walls. As her heart calmed down from seeing that damned monster again, and from the subsequent sprint, she felt like a weight had been placed over mind and chest. The pastor was dead. Mr. Chazokov was dead. Her own aunt was dead, and she lost her parents again. She couldn't even fight back. There was a cult member wanting her, presumably, dead. The demon in the mines was starting to call to her again.  
It was too much.  
As she tried to fight it, tears started to well in her eyes. Her friends were here, but she felt... alone. She felt like she was alone, in an ever-growing hole. If she died, if everyone here in Possum Springs died, she and everything else would be forgotten by the universe.  
It was too much. She was on the verge of breaking down entirely until she saw Kari and Bea coming up to her. Kari sat down beside Mae as Bea knelt down to be closer at eye level with the short sitting cat. "We're here for you, Mae," the white fox assured.  
"Yeah. Don't hesitate to let us know if we can help. Seeing you like this... kinda tears me up, not gonna lie," Bea admitted. Mae noticed that the gator did seem a bit more emotional than normal, her eyes and whole demeanor seeming softer.  
"H-Hey, Bea, I'll be fine. You don't have to cry just cause I am," Mae said, wiping at her own eyes.  
"I'm not-" the gator sighed. It was only then that she felt her eyes wetting just slightly. 'What is it about you, Mae Borowski?' she thought in her head. After her mother died in her senior year, and during the funeral, she thought she had poured enough emotions out to last a lifetime. She felt empty for a while, and having to help her distressed father did not help in the slightest. But, Mae... Ever since the childish feline returned from college, every so often she'd do something that could elicit a real emotion, even if it was sometimes anger... or sadness, in this instance. It was refreshing, she had to admit. Maybe Mae was the magical shit she needed.

  
"Let's just worry about us now. We're all safe," Kari spoke, putting a comforting hand on Mae's shoulder. Try as the cat may, she couldn't really stop herself from blushing just a tad. It was a simple touch, but it felt... good? The fox oddly felt the same way, but neither of them spoke up about it. It was just comforting.  
"You're good, you know that?" Mae complimented after a moment of rather awkward silence.  
"O-Oh, uh, thank you," Kari shyly responded.

At that moment, they all heard what sounded like something heavy being dragged. They looked over and saw Gregg dragging out a large plastic cooler from what seemed like a closet. "The heck is a cooler doing in a fallout shelter?" Bea questioned.  
"I dunno, but it feels full!" Gregg answered as he got it toward the center of the room. "Maybe some weirdos decided to set up a party in here before all this started." The fox then opened the white lid of the red cooler, revealing some half-melted ice, a few water bottles, some Fiascolas, and... A whole lot of canned bourbon. "Yep. Definitely a party setup."

"Oh boy, alcohol!" Bea sarcastically cheered.  
"I know we agreed that I should like, never drink again, but..." Mae started.  
"Oh, Mae, trust me. We are not stopping you," the gator gave an OK. After what they all went through, this was something they needed. Mae, Gregg, Angus and Bea all grabbed an ice-cold can, though there were some left over.  
"You all go on ahead. I'm not a drinker, really," Kari excused herself.  
"Same here," Lori said.  
"I'd hope so," the white fox gave a side glance at the teenager.  
"Hm."  
"I'll also pass. In fact, if someone could hand me a water, that'd be great," Germ asked, with Angus obliging in getting a bottle of cold water for the bird.

"I propose a toast," Mae declared, catching the attention of the others in the room as she opened her can. "A toast, to Aunt Molly. To Pastor Kate. To the city council dudes. To Mr. Chazokov," she raised her canned liquor up.  
"To Casey," Gregg added.  
"To mom," Bea said.  
"To, um..." Angus wanted to join in, but honestly couldn't think of anyone else off the top of his head. "To those guys in the Possum Massacre?"  
"Oh, so is this a toast to everyone who has ever died in Possum Springs?" Bea jokingly asked, getting a shrug from the bear.  
"Works for me," Mae said. "Cheers," she added as the four of them tapped the top of their cans together.


	11. A Toast, to Good Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drunken Mae casually makes a rather big compliment to another group member.

...  
It really, really did not take a lot to get the feline drunk, even after complaining about just how strong the drink was, she still got through half the can. A few cups of watered down beer were nothing in comparison. The other three weren't even feeling much of a buzz, but here was Mae, stood up with a slight wobble.  
"All that I'm saying is that, like, I haven't even been back in this town for two full months, and I've been stalked by a death cult, and now there are crazy possessed people and giant death monsters after us!" the cat blabbed on. "I know what it is! The universe, it wants to kill me and forget about me!"  
"Technically the universe can't really 'want' anything. It'd have to be, like, sentient for that," Angus reasoned.  
"No man. No," Mae argued as Bea tried to explain the cult of the Black Goat to a curious Kari, who managed to get the picture... somewhat. "I've seen it, felt it. The hole growing in the universe or some shit, it wants to take all of us into it and forget about us. But goddamnit I'm not gonna give it that satisfaction! We're gonna live forever!"  
"Damn straight!" Gregg cheered as the feline lifted a fist up above her head.  
"Defy Castys' gods!!"  
"Yeah!!"  
"Yeaah..." A groggy Germ joined in. The bandage and stitch over his wound had at least kept him from bleeding, but he still felt super tired. It had been a long morning.  
"That's, like, great and all Mae, but do us a favor and please don't throw up in here," Bea requested.  
"I don't think she's had anything to eat this morning anyways," Lori pointed out.

Some time passed, with Mae's balance having gone the way of her soberness. Kari had quickly sprang up and caught the feline as she was about to fall over. Mae's eyes stared up at the bright blue eyes of Kari's as she was held. "Hii~" the feline smiled.  
"I think you've had enough to drink, you should rest or something," the fox insisted.  
"I ma've had inuf t' drink but I can't getinuf 'f yooou~" the feline spoke, although at this point her speech was quite slurred, becoming harder to understand.  
"Uh?" Kari questioned. She knew what Mae had just said to her, and it worked a very slight blush onto her.  
"Yur kinda haaawt, y'know that?" Yep, this was what was going on now. "So much bluu n' white makes you pretty like a winter laaandscape."  
"Mae, you've known Kari for like a day and you're hitting on her?" Gregg asked with a laugh.  
"No no, it's fine," Kari said. "I, uh... Oh my," the white fox would only blush more. "Maybe now's not the time for all that, in front of everyone..." she'd say in a lower volume, as if talking to Mae directly.  
"... Say, who's Castys?" Gregg thought to ask.  
"If I remember right, it's one of the dusk stars. It tells a story about Castys, who built a stairway to heaven. But the gods got mad, so they threw her off, into the ocean. But she like, never died," Angus explained to his fox partner.  
"Wow. Gods are assholes."  
"Mmmhm."

It'd be about an hour before the drunken Mae conked out entirely, having to be helped onto another soft bedroll. Germ had also started a nap to help recover some strength as Angus did his best to monitor him, with Gregg by his side. Lori was busy looking around with a Fiascola in her hand, seeing as this was her first time in the shelter. Kari just sort of stood around, unable to get the blush off of her face. At least her white fur mostly covered it up, but...  
"I didn't think Mae had it in her," Bea admitted, being besides the fox.  
"Hm?" Kari looked up at the tall gator who had a dummy cigarette between her lips.  
"She, uh... Had a boyfriend once back in high school. Buuut, they broke up after an... incident. After that, she never talked about hooking up with anyone again, and I'm roughly 110% sure she never had the thought cross her mind while she was in college. But here she is now, calling you hot," Bea couldn't help but give a sly smile at the notion.  
"B-Beatrice...!" the tease didn't help with the fox's blush.  
"C'mon. What do you think of Mae?"  
What did she think of Mae? Kari looked down, pondering the question.  
"Sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything," the gator excused, thinking she was probably a bit too direct.  
"No no. I mean... I think I'd like to get to know her more. As with the rest of you, but I think I might just be a bit more, um... Oh my... Attracted? To her? I mean, it helps that I feel sympathetic about her."  
"Understandable."  
"And not to mention that, uh... I think she's kinda cute??" There goes that blush again. The fox was surprised when Bea put a hand on her shoulder.  
"It's safe to assume Mae has a thing for you. And if you have a thing for Mae, then you should open up to her. She has all of us, yeah, but I think a romantic partner... Someone she can put a lot of heart into, it would uh..." the gator seemed to lose her train of thought.  
"I think I know what you mean. Thank you, Bea," Kari smile.

...  
The abandoned glass factory. Closed down for decades at this point, but now it had a singular, black-hooded visitor. The stranger walked into the brick building, with walls riddled with graffiti. As he wandered through the factory, his boots would ocassionally trample over shards of broken glass, further shattering them. He'd keep going, until a low rhythmic sound softly caught his attention. He had heard it before, but it still drew him closer. He walked into a production area, full of unused machinery, but also a very strange... thing in the middle.  
It looked like an altar of red flesh, with a dark maroon orb sitting atop it. The orb had a black rectangular shape in the middle of it, making it appear like a deep red goat's eye. The hooded one approached this strange feature before taking the hood off of his head, revealing the head of a possum.  
"Just... What... Are you?" Conway questioned quietly as the altar pulsed softly like a resting heart. The possum took a rolled up paper from within his robe, unrolling it to reveal a map of Possum Springs as he marked down this very factory. There were three more marks already; City hall, the old train station, and deep in the woods.  
...

\---  
"So, it's your last night here, huh? Before you're off to that fancy college all the way in Stantontown."   
Two felines laid next to each other besides an empty road under a dark night sky. One was a very dark blue with a red tuft atop her head, along with a tan shirt with a null symbol on the front. The other had orange fur, a black hoodie and a cigarette between his lips  
"Yep," Mae responded to the other cat's question.  
"You're pretty lucky, y'know. Not a lot of people 'round here get a chance to go to college."  
"Oh, trust me Casey, I know. Mom has been hammering the fact that I'm the first person in my family to go to college for years."  
Casey was going to respond, but as he opened his mouth again, the unburned half of the cigarette slipped between his lips and into his mouth. Within a split second he coughed it out as he sat up quickly, hacking and coughing.  
"Geez, dude! You alright??" Mae urged, also sitting up as the other cat caught his breath. "Yeesh. They say smoking kills, but that's not what I had in mind."  
"Oh, hush," Casey scoffed. "I've been thinking of quitting for a bit now. I think that just then might have been the last push I needed."  
"It's too bad you didn't choke to death."  
Casey's brow raised at that statement. "Ohh, you have been spending too much time with Gregg," he retorted. "Too bad you didn't fall head-first off a tree."  
"Too bad you didn't drive into a tree."  
"Too bad you didn't get a body part chopped off, only for a group of randos to find it later and poke it with a stick."  
"... Yikes."  
"Yeah, I dunno where that came from," Casey admitted before he stood up. "Alright, I should get home. I'll miss you, man."  
"I'll come home soon, promise! I'll even try to visit for Longest Night," Mae assured, intending to come home after her courses were done.  
"Heh. I know, but still, it'll be a while. I'll see ya 'round."  
\---

... 'Man. Do I like, actually have an axe in my head or something?' Mae pondered as she slowly woke up. Her limbs ached, and her head was even worse off with a pounding sensation up there. She sat up groggily, putting a hand to her forehead.  
"Good afternoon, Mae," Kari greeted from beside the hungover feline. "How're you doing? Besides, well, the obvious."  
"Eh. Currently resisting the urge to start a fire in the tunnel and suffocate on the smoke," Mae admitted. She looked around, noticing it was just her and Kari in the shelter room together. "Hey, where'd everyone go?"  
"They're all outside. They might be discussing our next move," the fox answered.  
"Getting some fresh air. Or at least, as fresh as it gets around here. Can't blame them, though, it gets stuffy in here," Mae said as she stood up. At least she wasn't too dizzy to stand. "Geez... I didn't have that much, did I?"  
"Does one can count as that much?"  
"Obviously it does." The feline sighed, putting a hand up to her forehead tiredly. "Had a sort of odd dream while I was out."  
"Are strange, vivid dreams common for you?" Kari asked.  
"Mhm. They got like, really weird and thematic ever since I got home in October. But this one, it wasn't over-the-top or anything, it's just... It was like a flashback. I was with a friend I lost, someone who'd been gone before all of this went down..."  
"Oh no. Mae, you don't have to talk about it if-"  
"Nah nah, it's fine. Casey Hartley was a great friend of mine, and we got to say our goodbyes before I left for college. That, uh... Was the last time I saw him. He didn't deserve what happened to him."  
The white fox stayed silent, not wanting to make Mae uncomfortable by pressuring her to continue. After a few seconds of silence, Kari quietly asked, "Did... Did it have anything to do with that cult I've been hearing about?" To which Mae just nodded. "My goodness. I can't even begin to imagine what that's like. I'm incredibly sorry."  
"I'm pretty sure when I found out about it, I just went into complete shock. And then they tried justifying it with some stupid fortune telling bullshit. It was just... God, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, and everything that's happened here isn't helping." Without realizing, the cat had tensed up quite a bit, her hands curling into fists before she let out a breath, relaxing herself.  
"Sorry. Let's talk about something else," Mae offered, with Kari nodding.


	12. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group meets up with a trio of mildly familiar faces, who tell them of a strange sight in a train station. What Mae and co. find pushes them to a breaking point.

...  
"C'mon Meyers, you know us."  
A trio of gothic teenagers- a raccoon, a dull orange cat and a blue bunny, all with glasses and black attires- stood atop the steps going up the hill, looking down upon the group who had left the tunnels underneath. Bea, Gregg, Angus, Germ and Lori looked up at the three weird teens.  
"Britt, we see each other like, every other week? I get that we're neighbors, but still," Lori responded to the raccoon's statement. "And before you say anything, no, I don't have some sort of spiritual connection to you."  
"Just what are you doing all the way out here?" Angus inquired. Under any normal circumstance, he'd tell them that they should get home or somewhere safe, but... Out here, it was as safe as it could be.  
"Just some ordinary people," Britt the raccoon started,  
"Shedding light," Karla the cat continued,  
"On an unordinary scenario," Pam finished.

"Hey wait, don't I know you?" Bea spoke up. "From the graveyard, you were pretending to guard that gate. I think I also caught you in that trolley tunnel."  
"Ohhh yeah!" Britt replied, giving up on the mysterious tone in that moment. "Not gonna lie, I'm kinda glad to see you're alright."  
"In that case," Karla cut in, "We have another question for you," the cat said, with Bea rolling her eyes.  
"Have you seen the demons?" Pam brought forth the question.  
"If that's what you're calling those giant effoff tentacle freaks, then sure, we've seen the demons. Or at least, we've seen one," Gregg answered.

Just then, Mae and Kari walked out of the tunnel entrance, seeing the rest of the group, and then spotting the teens up at the top of the hill. The two got over to their friends. "You guys!" Mae called out toward the three.  
"Ah, I see you're okay as well," Britt greeted.  
"What're you doing out here?" Mae inquired.  
"Hoping to lean you in the right direction," Karla answered, garnering a few raised eyebrows and tilted heads in return.  
"You see," Pam continued, "After the attack in the trolley tunnel this morning, we ran for what felt like hours. We managed to find ourselves in the unused train station on the far side of town. Y'know, where people would go to and from the town back in, like, the 50s. And inside the station, we found... Something very strange. We didn't investigate it, though, because..."  
"We were kinda scared shitless, and we got out as soon as we could," Karla explained.  
"You broke the speaking order!" Mae pointed out.  
"Nope, just doing it backwards again," Britt replied.  
"Soooo, why are you telling us this? I doubt any of us have even been to that train station, and I'm not too adamant on going there just because of... something," Angus reasoned.  
"What did the thing look like?" Mae asked, purely out of curiosity.  
"It was like... someone took all the meat from a meat locker, stacked it up, and then put this weird red... Eye? On top. It was like a goat eye but really red," Pam explained. This piqued Mae's interest like never before.  
"A... goat?" Angus seemed quite thoughtful over this discovery. "Like the Black Goat the cult was supposedly worshipping. And the cult described the Goat as singing... Why does this all seem familiar?"  
"... Ibon?" Mae spoke up, with everyone else's attention toward her. "Ibon, the First Singer. Y'know, from the constellations!"  
"Again, you probably dreamed some of those constellations up. But, I suppose we have a name for it now. And I guess I've run out of natural theories for all this, so... Demonic goat Ibon it is."  
"What do we do about the thing in the station, though?" Bea asked.  
"Simple. Destroy it or something. Er, I guess kill it if it's alive? Maybe it'll make this whole situation stop?" Mae suggested.  
"I'm willing to try anything at this point," Gregg piped in.  
"We're gonna be horror-action heroes!" Lori cheered, although with a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.

"Well, if the train station is your destination, then we implore you to be careful," Karla said.  
"You guys stay careful, too. See y'all later!" Lori waved them off as the group began their way back toward town, though not going anywhere near the Centre. Instead, they trekked toward the outskirts.  
"... I was expecting a bit more questions about the whole demon thing," Pam commented.  
"Obviously they only know about as much as we do," Britt replied surely. "So like... Are they just like, dead here soon?"  
"Hey, c'mon-" Karla started.  
"No seriously, they're about to try destroying a demon altar or whatever. They're completely insane."

"C'mon, let's keep moving," Pam ushered, walking away from the top of the staircase toward the fence. "The sooner we get out of town and into Briddle, the better. Forget any of this happened."  
"You really wanna walk past the forest to Briddle?" the feline asked. "We'd probably freeze out there at night," she tried to reason.  
"I'd rather freeze than get ripped apart. Now c'mon!" the bunny instructed as she climbed over the metal fence, the chill of the cold metal being felt on her digits as the other teens followed suite. As they began to pass under the trees, the comforting solar light above them started to become blocked by dead, leafless tree branches. They continued on their way westward, into the woods.

...  
As the group walked carefully toward the railroad tracks, toward the station, Mae had her journal open, flipping until she got to the page about the Thryy Wyrd Tyyns. She doodled in a small goat drawing in the corner of the page, with the word 'Ibon??' above it. She then flipped to an empty page and doodled the strange beaked monster she had seen on two different occassions now, and below the drawing she wrote one word.

'Demons'.

Mae, Gregg, Bea, Angus, Lori, Kari and Germ all made their way up through a street coming towards the old train station. Their minds were equipped to handle anything that came their way... Or so they thought.  
"So, how are you holding up, man?" Mae asked Germ. He seemed better now than he was before, and his wound was patched up.  
"I'll live," the bird replied, surprisingly casual about it.  
"When this is all over, you can tell everyone that you were actually shot, and lived," Gregg brought up. "That's kinda metal if you ask me."

"So this is it. The ol' train station," Gregg said as the group stood in front of the rather large building. "It's weird seeing such an old station like this. They've got subway stations down in Bright Harbor."  
"Did you take a ride on the subway?" Mae asked curiously.  
"Nope. Too expensive."  
They walked in, seeing that the front area was a hallway with a reception desk in front of the door. There was a doorway on the far end of the corridor. "Smells weird in here," Germ pointed out.  
"Yeah, it's like... metallic?" Gregg replied, his nose more sensitive than the others'.  
"Smells like blood. Fresh, too," Angus informed.  
"Okay, I can kinda understand smelling water, but how do you know what fresh blood--" Bea started before the group noticed something. At the door leading to the rest of the building, there was something laying there. An outstretched arm, with dark blue fur...

They all cautiously approached the door, they could see stains of red on the floor near it, and some on the arm itself. What they saw as they rounded the corner into the doorway simultaneously stabbed shock into each of their minds. On the ground of the station's main room was Stan Borowski, Mae's own father, with blood covering his torso, and a wide rip into his abdomen. And above him was Stan's own spouse. Candy Borowski. The mother.  
Candy's eyes were bloodshot as her hands and mouth were covered in crimson. Her eyes shot up toward the group that had just spotted her as she let out an animalistic growl.

"Oh god... Are those...?" Kari softly spoke up.  
"M-Mom...?" Was the first thing that Mae could utter, trying to push above her shock. Without warning, the older feline made an attempt to rush the group, only to be stopped by a grab from Gregg. The fox was quite a bit smaller than the cat, but managed to hold his own until Candy brandished her claws and swiped down at Gregg's face. Her hand landed on his face, the claws hooking onto his right eye, causing him to cry out in intense pain. Angus sprung into action, pushing the crazed feline off, with her claws ripping out of Gregg's face as the fox fell to his knees, covering his eye as Kari and Lori rushed to his aid.  
Angus attempted to get Candy into a chokehold, but to no avail as she kept fighting back, clawing at the bear. Angus' stamina drained fast as he struggled to keep his breath steady in his fight. On the side, Gregg was still grunting out in pain as blood dripped out from his right eye. Lori spotted a knife handle in the fox's jacket pocket and gained a sudden idea as Angus was pinned down by the berserk feline. Bea attempted to get her off, only to be swiped by claws on her arm, causing her to step back as she now had a few bleeding cuts.

"Mom, stop!!" Mae cried out before spotting Lori with a short blade. The mouse, now in a blind rush, went over and stabbed the knife into Candy's side, causing her yell out as she fell off of Angus and onto her own back. The teen then got on the feline before stabbing the blade down into her neck. The feline let out another yell which turned into a gurgle as her struggles were reduced to twitches on the floor. Everyone else looked straight at her in pure shock and surprise, except for Angus who was catching his breath and Gregg who was trying to overcome the sharp pain in his eye.  
Lori came down from her rush, realizing just what she had done as Candy went still under her. The mouse's breath hitched as she threw the knife aside. "O-... O-Oh my god... I-I'm so sorry..." her breathing went heavy as she grabbed the sides of her head. She had gone into autopilot, and now her actions struck her mind down like lightning.

Everything was a blur for Mae. It was as if her own mind was trying to rid her of the image of her own dead parents. Shapes. Meaningless shapes. But, even though she could barely make out anything around her, she could feel something in the larger room. Without warning, she started making her way further into the building. As she walked, she would soon come across a strange sight as her vision slowly adjusted back to normal. The cat was met with a seven foot tall altar of red flesh, with a deep red eye looking down at her from the top. After staring at this strange form for a minute, the rest of the group followed suite. Gregg now had bandaging over his eye, as did Bea with her arm, seeing as Lori was still carrying that bandage wrap she had from the street. Lori was still shaking as Kari held onto her gently.  
"What the hell...?" Bea inquired.  
"Is that what those teens saw? Jeez," Germ wondered.  
"Maybe it's part of whatever the hell was in that pit. I mean, I didn't really think that there was anything in there, but..." Gregg's voice trailed off.  
"If we kill it, does all of this just... End?" Angus pondered as Gregg gently nicked his blade from Lori's hand.  
"One way to find out," the now one-eyed fox stated, making a speedy walk up to the strange figure before swinging his blade up high. His knife penetrated into the deep red eye, causing the entire altar to shake violently and - to everybody's surprise - emanante a loud, high scream. The ear-piercing sound caused everyone to stagger before the surrounding ground shook with an absence of warning. The altar suddenly sunk into the ground below, taking some of the station's wooden floor along with it, and the violent shaking caused pieces of the ceiling and roof to break off. The group members moved and/or cowered to cover their heads from falling debris. Unfortunately, as Mae tried to move, a plank of wood fell directly above her, striking her on the top of the head with enough force to discombobulate her. As the feline heard a ringing in her ears and saw her vision go into a mushy blur, she made an attempt to keep herself standing, but to no avail as her knees buckled... And she fell front-first into the sinkhole, blacking out in an instant from the impact at the bottom.

\---  
"... Skudder." A dark blue-furred feline man clad in a miner's outfit called to the faded grey jackal beside him. The jackal had apparently gotten himself into a tranced state, simply staring into the bottomless hole in front of the pair within the rocky cave. "You sure about this?"  
"Of course. I want to have it so that even when we pass, Ibon will still have strong influencers. We will have blessed blood, and that blood will be passed down for generations," Ed Skudder explained.  
"Did... He tell you this?" the feline asked skeptically before his buddy wordlessly handed him a knife. "Hm. I'm only doing this cause I trust you."


	13. Demons - Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae and co. have a run-in with a newfound enemy, who nearly get them killed. Their only option is to run.

"Mae!!"  
Back in the train station, Kari cried out, peering into the hole to see if she can spot the feline, but she can only barely see the now motionless flesh altar at the bottom.  
"Hey, guys, I've found some rope. We can try to like, fish her out!" Gregg suggested, hauling a line of rope out of a small, out-of-the-way closet. He chucked it down the hole, holding onto one end of it so that there'd be a vertical line for Mae to climb up. "Mae! Can you hear me!? Climb up!" the fox tried to yell down toward her, but not getting a response for a few seconds. He was going to try again before he felt a tug at the rope. The tug turned more into a constant downward force as the cat finally started to climb up wordlessly.  
She eventually got to the top of the sinkhole, climbing onto the edge before collapsing into Gregg's arms. She had a small gash on the top of her head from the hard edges of the wooden plank striking her, and a clear line of red had run down onto her face. "Woah. You alright, dude?" Gregg asked the feline that was on him.  
"I..." Mae choked out, her breath hitching. It was all Just. Too. Much. "N-No..." she managed to get out with her shaky breath before burying her face onto the orange fox's leather jacket, some of the still wet blood inadvertently smearing onto the front as her shaky cries turned into pronounced sobbing. The rest of the group looked on, unsure of just... what to do.  
"We'll... Give you some space," Bea spoke up, with Angus and Kari nodding.  
"Yeah, we'll just go outside and wait for you," Germ added.  
"Thanks, guys," Gregg nodded, trying to comfort Mae as the rest walked out, trying to avoid bringing attention to the two older felines.

Angus, Bea, Germ, Lori and Kari stood outside of the wood and brick train station. For the most part, they were just making an attempt to clear their heads.  
"You... You okay, Lori?" Kari asked the teen next to her, who offered no response. She simply stared ahead and slightly down.  
"Should give her some space," Angus advised. It was likely better to let the mouse try and recover from what had just happened. After some time, Gregg and Mae made their way back outside. One of Mae's arms was slung over Gregg's shoulders as the fox helped her walk. The feline had an uneven gait as she had her free hand over the gash on her head. Lori perked up slightly and pulled the bandage wrap out of her pocket, although there wasn't much left of it.  
"I can patch that up," the mouse offered quietly as Gregg sat the cat down and let Lori work on her. The teen carefully covered up the cut with what she had left. "There we go."  
"Can you walk?" Bea asked Mae, who wordlessly nodded, standing up with a dizzy wobble.  
"I can keep helping you walk, Mae," Gregg offered, but the feline shook her head.  
"I'm fine, but thanks man," she responded. She put a hand up to her chest and let out a breath as her heart thumped. "I thought I'd be less keyed up than I am right now."  
"Probably another endorphin rush," Angus inferred. "You really like riding those dolphins, huh?" he tried lightening the mood. Got a chuckle out of Mae, at least.

"So... Where now?" Bea questioned. But before there could be an answer from anyone there, they all heard the sound of thin snow crunching, followed by a dreadfully familiar voice.  
"That certainly is a good question." It was Conway again. "I heard a loud scream and followed it, only to find all of you. What did you do?"  
"We found this big demonic tower... Thing, and killed it dead," Gregg reported. "Killed it so hard it fell into a sinkhole! What's it matter to you, old man?"  
"An altar? One with a red goat eye on top?"  
"Mhm."  
"And you... killed it."  
"What else were we supposed to do? Make friends with it?"

"Hmm. Well, what if I told you that I know where the other altars are? Or, at least a few of them," the possum brought up. "Course, that information isn't going to come freely. I've run out of bullets for this here rifle, and..." Before he could finish speaking, they all heard a low yet pronounced growl. They turned toward the source to see the big fleshy beast on tentacles approaching them, a gaze of upright hatred in its wide, bulbous yellow eyes. "I've had this fella trying to pin me down for a bit."  
"T-That thing's been following you??" Lori yelped.  
"I must say, you probably wasted a bullet on me with that monster on your trail," Germ spoke, a tinge of snark in that statement, even if his voice was entirely straight.  
"What the hell do we do against that?" Bea demanded, with an unusual amount of panic. Even her stoicism couldn't outweigh her panic in that moment.

"H-Hold on..." Mae said as the monster started to become uncomfortably close. "It's like... Trying to speak to me, I think," she reasoned.

Feeling a throbbing pain, she put a hand up to her head. Eventually, the beast had gotten up to the group in front of the station, and everyone took a fair few steps back... All except Mae.  
"... What are you?" the feline inquired. The monster simply stared her down with a jagged, gutteral breath. "Are you one of those things that the big sky cat in my dream told me about?" Still no response. With the distraction, Conway stepped off to the side before making his escape from the area, unbeknownst to the others who were looking directly at the monster ahead. He wasn't going to be dealing with whatever was about to go down. "Say something, damnit!" Mae snapped, causing the beast's eyes to widen before it reeled back and gave a low roar with its vertically split beak mouth.  
Angus very suddenly went and grabbed Mae, pulling her out of the way before the monster's mouth snapped close in a way that would've guillotined the feline. "We're gonna have to run!" the bear barked. The others, needing no further instruction, hastily ran from the station as the beast tried to charge towards them. Thankfully, it missed everyone and slammed headfirst into one of the brick walls of the building, entering a daze. Angus and Mae were behind the rest of the group as they all ran off. They weren't sure where they were going, as long as it brought them to safety.

Soon, after the panic had settled down and the group could get a look at their surroundings again, they could see that they were now near a sizeable frozen-over pond. On the other side, there were a few abandoned factories and other industrial facilities. The rest of town, including the Food Donkey and the shelter near it, were all behind them, a fair distance out.  
Before anyone could say anything, Angus had to quickly sit down, wheezing rather intensely with a hand to his chest as he pulled out a rescue inhaler from his pocket. "You alright, Angus??" Gregg quickly asked.  
Angus took a puff from the inhaler. "Yeah, I'll... I'll be fine..." he assured. "Just... give me a minute."  
"So, if we went back toward the shelter, we may end up running into that thing again," Lori supposed. "What say we check out what's over there?"  
"Could find something useful for finding the other 'altar' things. Especially since that jerkhole left us!" Mae pointed out as Conway was no longer with them. "I know what he was doing now, he tried to sick that thing on us!"  
"Sounds about right," Germ agreed.  
"I swear, I'm not gonna hesitate to gut him next time we see him," Gregg said through gritted teeth before sitting next to Angus, who was thankfully recovering.

"If we take a walk around the pond, it'll take us a while to get there," Kari mentioned. "I bring this up, cause... Beatrice, you look like you're about to freeze to death."  
"I-I'm fine, promise," Bea assured. The hood of her thick black coat was over her head, to help conserve more heat, but she was still shivering in the cold, and it would only get worse as the evening came.  
"Still, we should try to save time and go across the ice."  
"You trust the ice with our lives?"  
"I've crossed some pretty thin ice, we'll be fine."  
"Well, you're like five feet tall and a hundred pounds at most. We're like, seven people with varying weights."

"I'll go first," Angus suddenly interjected, standing up with a sigh. "If it can support me, it can sure as hell support all of you."  
"You're not that fat, Cap'n," his fox boyfriend added.  
"Still," the bear responded, stepping onto the ice and beginning to walk along it toward their destination. "Wait until I'm across!" he instructed to the rest of them.


	14. Sheer Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a risky crossing of a frozen pond, the group searches an industrial area. Meanwhile, a ghost rises from the shadows.

"Please be careful..." Kari called out as Angus carefully inched along the sheet of ice that was surprisingly successful in keeping him above the water. The lone bear carefully took one step at a time, soon reaching the halfway point toward the opposite side. All without a single crack in the ice...  
Angus turned back toward the group, feeling a touch more confident about the idea of crossing the ice. "You guys should be able to get across just fine, as soon as I get--" he started, but then heard a rapid succession of footsteps from beside him. He and the others turned over to see a berserk orangish-red fox man running onto the ice toward Angus! "Oh shit," the bear muttered, bracing himself before he had the fox try to tackle him, pushing most of his weight onto the much bigger bear. Angus had to keep the head of the berserk one pushed back to keep himself from being bitten.  
"Angus!" Gregg called out in panic, starting a sprint onto the ice, but in his haste he lost his footing on the slippery floor below him, falling onto his back with enough force to cause a few cracks. "Shit...!" he groaned in pain, looking up toward his bear partner.  
"D-Don't worry Bug, I got this," Angus told Gregg as he struggled to keep his own footing. At the same time, Mae got onto the ice as well, although staying careful as to not fall down. Reluctantly, Bea followed suite, keeping her distance to not put too much weight in one place as the bear pushed the berserk fox back, only to be tackled again, this time falling onto his back with the fox on top of him, causing the ice to nearly break immediately.

Gregg watched on with his one eye as he tried to stand back up. Mae picked up her pace somewhat toward Angus, who managed to successfully punt his aggressor off to the side. "M-Mae, hold on..." the bear urged as the feline got closer to try and help him out. "You're gonna break--" he tried to warn as Mae got to the cracked portion of the ice sheet. Without warning, the solid sheet of ice broke underneath Mae, Angus, and the berserk fox, sending them all cascading into the frigid water below.  
Water flooded into Mae's ears as she flailed about, her movements dragged and sluggish as they shwished through the liquid. She blinked her eyes open, powering through the cold sting as she found herself sinking down. Thankfully the late afternoon sunlight reached down to the bottom, so it wasn't just a dark void, but she still found herself in a light panic as she held her breath. The feline looked up to see Angus swimming up and breaching the water's surface through the hole she had inadvertently created. Mae forced her limbs - even as they started to feel numb from the cold - into motion, starting to swim up as well before she felt her entire body jerk downward. Her eyes widened as she looked down, seeing that the berserk fox had grabbed her by the leg, gnashing his sharp teeth up at her.  
Mae's heart raced as she used her free leg to kick at the aggressor's head, hoping to push him off or just knock him out entirely, leaving him to drown. She had to do something, she would drown otherwise! The sheer cold water had flooded into her boots, her tan jacket and pants, biting at her fur and skin underneath as she felt a sensitive numbness come over her. Powering through it, she manage to bolt her foot down onto the fox's head, causing his grip to falter as he let go of her, now flailing near the bottom of the pond as his own need for breath got the better of him.

The feline's chest pulled aggressively as her legs kicked frantically. Her body involuntarily went into a giant panic as she was unable to control herself anymore. Looking up, she could see blurry silhouettes above the ice, unable to make out what anyone was doing or saying, but they were moving kinda frantically... The cat could hardly move anymore, with her limbs so numb. Letting out a stream of bubbles from her strained lungs, she felt her mind buzzing out as her vision blurred more. Her head was pounding, as was her chest, but the panic that had overtaken her crumbled into a deep drowsiness...  
As her eyelids started to lid over her eyes slowly, she caught a glimpse of a foxy figure diving into the water above her, before her eyes closed and sleep overcame her.

\---  
Mae and Casey were standing at the shore of the pond, completely alone in the late evening. Being 13 at the time, they decided to try out something that they had heard other teens doing there - Skippy dipping. They had spent a couple of hours simply swimming about and relaxing under the hot summer sun, and now they had gotten out, slipping their clothing back on.  
"Told ya it'd be fun," Casey teased.  
"Hmm. I mean, it's just like normal swimming... Without clothes. It's weird, but also nice?" Mae responded. "What if you got bitten by a snake, though?"  
A brief silence came over the pair.  
"What if you tripped on a tree root and fell on your face?" Casey retorted.  
"What if you caught some illness from dirty pond water?"  
"What if you got tangled in seaweed and drowned?"  
"Man, does that even like, actually happen?" Mae wondered. "You see it in movies all the time, but how does seaweed just grab someone?" she asked, garnering a shrug from the other cat. "Still. Pretty spooky thought."  
"Mhm. Aaanyways, I should probably get home and wash up," Casey excused, beginning his walk back home. "I'll see ya later!" he called back toward Mae.  
"Later!" Mae waved him off, also starting to head back to her home.  
\---

"Guh..." The dark blue feline groaned as she awakened from another past-calling dream. Her eyes very groggily blinked opened, and she found that she was breathing normally again. Cold winter air in, warm foggy breath out. She felt strangely warm and cold at the same time, and as she gathered her bearings, she saw that she was laying right next to a barrel that had a pleasant fire burning from within. She was also within a brick building with a door leading outside nearby, and she saw Bea huddled close to the barrel fire. "Beebee...?" she quietly called out, catching the gator's attention as she looked down toward the laying cat.  
"Oh thank god you're alright," Bea spoke with sincerity as Mae sat up, resting a hand on her head.  
"Ugh... Well, why wouldn't I be alright? Aside from like, nearly drowning." Mae retorted with a slight smile.  
"You're oddly chipper for someone who had that exact thing happen."  
"I laugh in the face of danger, Beatrice. Not to mention I'm kinda like, hyper now that I'm waking up. My heart feels like it's gonna beat out of my chest and shit," the cat admitted. After a brief period of grogginess, she felt like her mind was suddenly in overdrive. Another rush of endorphins. "Say, uh... Where's everyone else?"  
"Checking out the other buildings. You kinda almost died for us to be here, so we're gonna spend as long as we can looking for something useful."  
"... Are you scolding me? Are you my new mom?"  
"Uh..." Bea gave an awkward shifty-eyed expression at that remark.  
"Cause right now, you guys are the closest thing to a family."  
"Mm. I... Geez, Mae, I'm really sorry about all of that. That just... You don't deserve any of that," the gator said.

After a couple seconds of silence, Mae spoke up again, "I think I understand Angus now." This caused Bea to raise a brow. "Back when we were trying to hunt that 'ghost', me and Angus went up to Possum Jump as you know. Well, before we were chased off, we actually ended up looking up for some constellations. And after that, we kinda had this existential talk about like, how the universe doesn't care, and people do."  
"Uh-huh?"  
"And then I had that dream where I met God I think. And he was talking a bunch of weird shit about how the universe is going to forget me. Forget us, even. W-What I'm saying is, if we die now, no one is going to be here to remember us. We'll just be... gone. Forgotten."  
"That's... Huh. That is really philosophical coming from you, Mae."  
"I'm just telling it how I see it."

Meanwhile, in the cold outdoors next to one of the factory buildings, Kari and Angus stood together, hanging out up against one of the factory walls. Angus seemed slightly uncomfortable in his soaking wet, cold clothing. "You sure you're gonna be alright, Angus?" Kari asked in a concerned manner.  
"Yeah. I'm big and fluffy, a bit of cold ain't gonna kill me," the bear assured.  
"Still, we should get somewhere dry and warm ASAP. You're gonna get ill in those."  
"Eh. Better sick than dead, honestly."  
"I guess... So."  
"So?"  
"What's our plan after all this? Even if destroying those altar things causes all of this to stop, I think Possum Springs has been damaged beyond repair," the white fox pondered.  
"We're gonna have to get out and move somewhere ASAP, and figure things out from there," Angus figured. "I would suggest starting on that now, but Mae wouldn't be happy with that. She'd really want us try our best to stamp this monster stuff out."  
"The least we can do is try, right? Either way, we're gonna make it out of this, together."  
"Mhm. Of course." Just then, a trio consisting of Gregg, Lori and Germ rushed outside toward the conversating pair. "Woah, you guys alright?" Angus asked them.  
"Yeah, we uh..." Gregg panted lightly, "We found another altar."

...  
"That... Should do it." A greenish-blue cat finished wrapping a white bandage around one of Selma's legs, which had received a large gash. "You alright?" Sadie inquired.  
"You ain't gotta worry, I'll be fine," Selma replied. The pair found themselves in an out-of-the-way neighborhood after having ran from the trolley hideout. "Hey, uh, sorry again... For Saleem."  
"Hm. What he did kinda saved our lives, no? If it wasn't for that distraction, we would've likely been caught and..." the cat gave a light shiver.  
"Yeah. Geez... And we can't even like, thank him," the bear sighed. "This shit is just unreal. Plain and simple."  
"Mhm..." Sadie nodded as the bear took a few steps onto the snowy ground ahead. The feline stayed behind to collect her thoughts for a moment. Unbeknownst to her, a black-hodded figure with a long snout and only one arm would peek out from between two houses behind the pair. The stranger would rush up soundlessly toward Sadie before silently knocking her out with a strike on the head. Before the cat could even fall forward, she was grabbed on the neck and quickly slung over the hooded one's shoulder, and the stranger rushed off.  
"C'mon Sadie, we should find another safe place to hide out," Selma called out. She raised a brow as she didn't get a response, and turned to see that she was now all alone. No extra set of footprints on the snow, and Sadie's footprints just... ended. "Sadie??" the bear panicked, looking all around her, only to not see anyone else. "SADIE!?" her breath picked up in pace. She looked away for a second, and now her new friend and partner was just gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of this chapter going up, this fic has reached 100+ hits! Thank you to everyone who has at least checked this out!


	15. To Safety, For Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After discovering another strange altar and dispatching it, the group is separated by one of the giant monsters that have tried to hunt them down. Angus finds a way to take it down once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: (Non detailed) Vomiting

...  
"So, like... what are these things? What do they do?" Gregg pondered. The entire group stood in front of another fleshy altar-like figure with the dark red eye atop it. They were all situated in a production area of the glass factory, with tall windows letting in the sunset's light. It was progressively getting darker earlier as the days went on... "How could this just cause all of this stuff that's going on when it's just sitting here?"  
"That's assuming that this is the source of it all. But it'd have to be like, magic or something," Angus spoke.  
"... Which, at this point, we can't really rule out..." Mae retorted as Gregg slipped a hand into one of his jacket pockets.  
"If we're gonna kill it, we should be quick. Who knows if that... thing... is still after us," Kari advised.  
"Best case scenario, it tries to cross the pond, falls in and drowns," the feline mentioned. "I mean, we did make a pretty inviting hole for it to dive into. Sorry bout that by the way," she apologized to Angus.  
"Ah, we made it out, didn't we?" Angus excused with a wave of his hand. "You are okay, right? Surprised you didn't catch hypothermia or something."  
"I'm fine. I'm sturdy, at least according to granddad. Alright, we doing this?" the cat asked as Gregg pulled his knife out.  
"Yeah. Afterwards, we get back to the shelter and rest up a bit. It's certainly been a hell of a day..." the fox noted before walking up to the altar. But before he could plunge the blade into the giant eye, several of the glass windows shattered around them with a sharp noise.

Looking around, they could see that a group of berserkers were breaking into the room they were at, at least eight of them pouring in. "Shit! Gregg, hurry!!" Mae ushered the fox before he quickly swung his blade up, sinking it into the red eye that sat atop. This one also let out a loud scream, disorienting both the band and the berserkers around them before the ground under the altar shook and broke, making it fall into a deep hole as the gang backed up. With the shaking of the ground dissipating, the gang now had to fend for themselves against their new guests. The shambling aggressors made their way toward the group, an oak brown deer person about to rush down Lori and Kari before Bea quickly stepped up and slammed a fist into its face, causing it to stumble back. A beaver in thick, plad attire and a safety vest with a chainsaw strapped to him managed to grab onto Angus, but its assault was stopped as Gregg stabbed his neck into the beaver's side, causing it to fall.  
"Damnit, there's too many! We're gonna have to run!" Bea yelled as Germ managed to push a manic goat lady off him.  
"But Angus--" Mae was going to point out that Angus was barely fit to run, with him already starting to go short on breath from fighting. Before the feline could finish, a sudden loud crash could be heard. Off to the side, the brick wall had just been broken through by that large fleshy, disgusting creature. Tendrils helped it move as it spotted the band, giving off a gutteral roar.  
"You've got to be effing kidding...!" Gregg muttered as the beast slithered forward, quickly grabbing the beaver with its one tentacle arm. The victim yelled out before being silenced by a brief bite on the neck. Going still, it was thrown aside as the other berserkers fled from the area. Even with their affliction, they had some reason, it seemed.

'Damnit, not gonna be able to run from it this time...' Angus thought, his breath short as his eyes trailed down to that beaver lumberjack's body. It still had that chainsaw on its person. If he could grab that... "You all, run! Get to the shelter!" the bear instructed.  
"What-" Gregg started to objected.  
"Now!! I can't run like this, I'll get caught!" the bear shouted. They weren't getting past him, it seemed. After a second of hesitation, most of them made a run for the exit. Gregg, Bea, Germ and Lori made their escape, but Mae and Kari stayed behind. Mae was wanting to see if she could help Angus out, and Kari was mostly wanting to stay with the feline to assure her safety.  
"Not letting you take this thing on alone, big guy," Mae said firmly before the thing lunged forward. Thankfully the three were able to dodge it, although Angus tripped over his own feet, falling down right next to the beast as it focused on him. Angus' breath caught as it opened its mouth, exposing all those sharp teeth and long tongues.  
"Hey, shits-for-brains!!" Mae cried out, chucking a piece of broken brick at the beast, causing it to look up and over at the feline and the white fox shaking next to her. With the distraction, Angus got himself up and over to the dead manic beaver. His hands quickly grabbed onto the dormant chainsaw, one hand on the handle and the other on the cord. He pulled back on the cord, revving the engine of his new tool. The loud buzzing noise emanating from the chainsaw made the beast snap its attention again as it looked back at Angus. In response, it opened the end of its tendril arm, exposing the hole that ran down the center.

Ignoring this, the bear rushed forward towards the enemy. As he approached, the monster shot out a thin bar of white, boney material at high speeds at him. It ended up grazing the bear's arm as he finally reached his target, pressing the throttle on his chainsaw as he swung down at the monster's red fleshy neck. It let out a gutteral scream as the tool cut into it, spraying its crimson liquid onto the floor beside it. The spinning chain sliced through the pink and red mass, cutting down to its windpipe and severing it. Unfortunately, after only a few seconds, the blade would become stuck as the chains no longer spun, the motor having gotten gummed up in the beast. It didn't matter, as what was already done left the monster a gurgling, dying mess.  
"... Holy god, Angus," Mae managed to get out after a moment of shock. Kari was off to the side, hurling at the sight. Well, there goes that poor fox's meal. Mae just stepped off to the side a bit to give Kari space. "That was... That was..." the cat started before a smile came to her, "Seriously badass! You effed him up!!" she cheered to Angus.  
"Heh. I guess I did. C'mon, let's get back with the others. And see if there's anyway to wash this off..." Angus' dark green suit-like shirt now had a very distinct red blodge on it from the blood spray. "You ready to go, Kari?" he asked the hunched over fox.  
"Y-Yeah... Sorry..." Kari panted, wiping at her lips. Her legs were notably shaky as she and the other two made their way outside. As they walked through the outdoor snow with Angus in front, Kari suddenly felt something encompass her right hand. She looked over to see that Mae was holding her hand, and the feline had a soft smile on her. The fox couldn't help but smile too. It helped take her mind off of what she had just witnessed.

...  
"Now, what do we have here?" asked an older possum man.  
In a vast, snowy field, there were four lone figures. Conway and the three goth teens - Britt, Karla and Pam - stood alone. Although, Pam the bunny seemed to be stuck in a chest-high hole in the ground. The other two girls were going to help her out, but they were busy making light jokes of the situation. Until the possum stranger showed up. "Grab my hand, I'll get you outta there," Conway offered, reaching out toward Pam, who easily took it and let him pull her out. "Y'all shouldn't be out here. You're lucky you didn't fall into the actual sinkhole."  
"Oh? We've never been here, so..." Britt admitted.  
"We're in Jenny's Field. Back a few decades, a girl named Jenny fell into a sinkhole that was covered in grass. She was never found. Could've been one of you just now," Conway explained.  
"Yikes," Pam winced at the thought.  
"Well, we were originally going through the woods to get out of Possum Springs and into Briddle. But there were just so many of... them..." Karla shuddered. "We thought circling through this field would be a good idea."  
"Long as you all avoid the sinkhole, it should be fine. But really, watch your step," the possum advised. "And good luck on getting out of here. There's nothing left for you in this town."  
"Well, what about you?" Britt wondered. "Are you not gonna get out of here with us?"  
"Mh. No, I got some unfinished business for the time being."  
"Um... Okay. Well, uh, good luck?" the racoon said, but then her eyes suddenly widened as she seemed to be looking at something behind the possum.

"Hm?" Conway raised a brow before looking behind him. There didn't seem to be anything... "What's wrong?"  
"U-Uh. Thought I saw someone hooded in black behind you," Britt answered unsurely. "But it kinda just went away as soon as I noticed it. I might just be going crazy or something..." she explained before she saw that her two friends were starting to make their way toward the tall brick structure in the distance. "H-Hey, wait up!" the racoon called out, catching up with them.  
"Someone hooded in black...?" Conway pondered to himself as he turned and went the other way towards the town. "Another survivor? Or just someone dressing up all gothic or something." But then something else caught his attention, there were no footprints in the snow in front of him. Even if someone were sneaking up to them and booked it when they got noticed, they'd leave tracks... Maybe Britt was just seeing things after all.

...  
Within three seconds of reentering the underground shelter, Angus was greeted with a tight hug from Gregg. "Thank god you're alright!!" the fox cried out happily. "Don't pull dumb shit like that again, y'hear!"  
"Well, me pulling that 'dumb shit' let me kill that thing," Angus told in response.  
"Oh really??" Gregg gasped at that news. Such a dangerous beast, killed at the hands of Angus of all people. It was then that the fox looked down and saw the blood on Angus' attire, some of which had now rubbed off onto his own black jacket. "Ohh..."  
"God, it was certainly a sight to behold," Mae commented. "One of those crazy guys had a chainsaw on him, and Angus just picked it up and used it on the monster."  
"Eheh. Yeah, I got the idea to use the chainsaw and my body just sorta went into autopilot," the bear said. The others were pretty speechless. The idea of Angus with a chainsaw was quite hard to conjure in their heads. "Anyways, everyone okay?"  
"Yeah. No one's hurt. Not anymore than they were earlier, at least," Bea responded. It was then that Kari looked past the other group members to see Lori standing by herself. The mouse seemed lost in thought. No doubt that she was in shock from the events today. Bea noticed the fox's gaze, and responded with a low "Give her some space for now..."

"So, what's our plan now?" Mae piped up.  
"We're resting up for the day. Gotta save our energy," Germ replied.  
"Yeah. We're just gonna, like... Not think about the outside world for the rest of the day," Bea added. "We can do whatever needs to be done tomorrow, but for now... Just stay here."  
"I can get behind that," Angus admitted. All the running around clearly did a number on him, and he needed nothing more than a few hours of rest. Mae seemed to want to object, but honestly... It would be in their best interest to stop moving for a while. The cat nodded, walking further into the shelter room.

Mae had a lot on her mind. Conway was out there. Those things were still out there. Her parents were... 'O-Oh, god...' After all that adrenaline finally stopped pumping in her system, the realization slammed into her like a truck. It froze her dead in her tracks, making her mind and chest feel heavy. They were dead. No amount of vengeance or altar-killing was going to change that. But there was nothing that could have been done... This was how it was. But even then, tears welled up and slid down from her eyes effortlessly as she faced away from the others.

The people in this shelter, her friends, were all she had left. They were her new family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter chapter this time, but things are going to get quite interesting soon.


	16. Finding Forrester

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unable to sleep, Mae decides to take a night walk in the peaceful outskirts. However, she's interrupted by her friend Selmers.

Above the band of survivors, night fell upon Possum Springs, casting the ruined town into a cold darkness. Within the fallout shelter underground, the only way of telling time was with the digital clock propped up on one of the walls, and also the intense feeling of exhausted drowsiness that had washed over everyone inside. Off to the side, there was a bathroom with a small shower that they were all taking turns using, with Germ being inside there at that moment. Mae and Kari sat off near one of the corners of the main room.  
Angus and Lori were sat in front of Gregg, tending to the wound he had received on his eye in that train station. Lori still had some bandage wrap on hand, and Angus had gotten a hold of a first aid kit from within the shelter's storage. The bear carefully removed the used and bloodied bandaging from Gregg's head, revealing the fox's lacerated eye to the air as he winced. "Whew... Yeah, um... I hate to say this, but," Angus started. "You're probably not gonna get use out of that eye again."  
"Shit. Really?" Gregg sighed as Angus lifted up a cotton swab with disinfectant. The fox sucked in a breath through gritted teeth as his boyfriend lightly touched the injured area. It stung like hell, but it had to be done. After a while, Lori helped from the side to apply a fresh bandage over the wound. Angus seemed very solemn about the situation.  
"I'm so sorry, Gregg," the bear spoke, his voice somehow feeling heavy.  
"What are you apologizing for? This wasn't your fault, Cap'n."  
"I could've done a better job at protecting you. I should've done better to make sure nothing like this happened--"  
"Angus! Angus," Gregg called, "It's alright. You did what you could, man. And hey, you kinda saved all of our asses. If it wasn't for you and your chainsaw, we probably would've been hunted down all the way over here by that thing, and it could probably bust through that door. What would we do, then?"  
"... Yeah," Angus sighed, but it felt kind of relieved. "I guess you're right." And after that, Lori finished up on the new bandage.  
"C'mere, Cap'n," the fox outreached his arms toward his bear partner, who gave him a hug in return.

"... Hey, Kari?" Mae finally broke the silence between her and the white fox beside her.  
"Yeah?"  
"We've known each other for a bit now, and uh," the feline wanted to ask something, literally anything to distract herself from her own emotions at that moment. "What do you do in your free time? Before all this, at least."  
"Well, I tended to practice piano, playing tunes to myself. I also sometimes watched videos on wrestling, or street fighting," Kari replied.  
"Oh? Those are like, two completely different things," Mae pointed out, but she seemed interested in the topic.  
"Well, a lot of spirit goes into fighting, you know? At one point I was wanting to have a partner so I could learn how to spar, but my mother never let me." After that, Mae seemed to choke and tense up slightly, but recovered quickly. "Y-You okay, Mae?" Kari asked.  
"Yeah! I'm alright," the feline assured with a wave of her hand. Truth was, the fox had piqued her interest due to her undisclosed love of wrestling, or just fighting in general. There was no way that Mae could have guessed that Kari was someone to also find interest in that, and it caught her way off-guard. But now she felt oddly... awkward. Would be weird to suggest bonding through throwing punches, she thought. "So um. Storstrand, right?" she changed the topic, bringing up Kari's last name. "That's a nice name. Kinda doesn't sound English."  
"It's a Norwegian surname. I was born in America, but my parents and their parents before them lived in Norway," the fox explained.  
"Huh. I think you're like... the first Nowegian person I've ever met. One of my teachers was from, like, way eastern Europe. I had a French teacher in middle school I think, and one day I kinda just met a random Russian dude."  
"Small world."  
"There are things that make the world look so big, yet so small. Like, if you've ever been up high, it all looks both smaller and bigger. Kinda crazy when you think about it."

After everyone was cleaned up, they all got onto some form of cushion or sleeping bag. The group would fall asleep relatively quickly... All except for Mae.  
Mae, who could normally fall asleep within seconds of getting into a comfortable position and closing her eyes, just found that the peaceful stillness of sleep wouldn't take her tonight. Sighing, she sat up from her lone mattress, seeing that the rest of them were sound asleep already. She groggily stood up and headed for the room's door. Maybe a walk in the fresh air could do her some good, provided she doesn't run into one of them. She carefully opened the door and walked out into the stone and metal tunnels that would lead her outside, getting used to their layout now. But as the cat slowly made her way through the corridors, she heard echoey footsteps nearby, unable to see the source due to the corners she hasn't rounded yet. Brandishing her claws out from one hand, she cautiously made her way forward, making sure to walk quietly. The feline stealthfully made her way further out until she saw a shadow around a corner. It looked kind of short, with rounded ears. There wasn't any sort of strange sounds, but Mae was still on high alert. With a lunge, she quickly got around the corner, a hand raised as she suddenly saw Selma!  
"WHA-!" the bear yiped out as the cat jumped out at her, but Mae quickly realized that she was completely normal.  
"Oh geez, Selmers?? I uh, sorry bout that..." Mae apologized as the pair calmed down.  
"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Selmers griped. "But uh, geez. You're a sight for sore eyes, Mae." It was then that the bear noticed a shift in Mae's expression. She became a fair bit more solemn at that moment. "Mae?"  
"Mr. Chazokov said the same thing..." Mae informed lowly.  
"Chazokov? Is he with... Wait..." Selmers' mind put two and two together. "No. C'mon, tell me he isn't..." But the feline only gave her a certain look for a second before looking down with a sigh. "Damnit. Why him??"  
"He's at the old trolley station, if you wanna, y'know..." Mae offered. "He deserves a proper burial, but just saying bye is the least we could do. I'll come with you. Buddy system."  
"Right. Thanks, Mae. C'mon."

The cat and bear made their way back outside into the freezing night air. They didn't seem to affected by the cold in their jackets. "So, what were you doing in that tunnel?" Selma questioned curiously.  
"Apparently my friend Germ was one of the only people to know, but there's an old Cold War fallout shelter underground. Was probably meant for the business owners here, but that was before they all left," Mae explained. This oddly enough got a scoff out of the bear.  
"They had a shelter all to themselves, in case Possum Springs of all places was nuked. And the poor workers?"  
"... Would've all been vaporized."  
"That's how it works. That's how it allll works."  
"But now me and my friends kinda just live there now. It's not really cozy, but it works. You could move in after we're done with, uh, this."  
"I'd like to, but I'd have to bring the rest of the group," Selma dismissed as the pair got into Towne Centre. "Few hours ago I found a group of survivors. Had this possum dude called Conway as a defacto leader. If I moved in without telling them, I'd be abandoning them. If I told them, they'd want to move in with me, and I bet it's too small for six more people."  
Mae had a certain look of surprise and... slight dread in her eyes. "...?" Selma raised a brow. "You alright?"  
"U-Uhh, yeah I'm fine," the feline was simply unnerved to hear Conway's name. He was leading a survivor camp now? "Just uh, don't tell Conway where I am, okay?" This garnered a suspicious expression from Selma. "It'll be better if you don't."  
"I, um... Alrighty then."

The two of them made it down into the underground trolley station without any resistance. "Is that...?" Selmers spotted something from the middle of the staircase. It was Mr. Chazokov. Or rather, his body. The sight sent a lump from the bear's chest to her throat, but she forced it down as the pair descended down to the platform. The sinkhole that had formed hours prior was still there, but the beast that had fallen in had vacated it long ago. Now that beast lay dead in the glass factory. The feline's thoughts were interrupted as she heard Selma give a low, solemn sigh. Mae looked over to see the bear squatted near Chazokov.  
"I'm... Really sorry," Mae approached the bear slowly.  
"He didn't deserve anything like this. I mean, no one deserves to have it end like this. Not even Dennis," Selmers admitted. "This is all just so shitty... We weren't like, super close friends but we got to know each other a fair bit when he let me move in."  
The two simply stayed in silence for a minute. "You go on, Mae. I'll stay here for a bit before catching up with that group."  
"Selmers..."  
"C'mon, I'll be fine."  
Mae was silent for a moment. "... Alright. Just stay safe, alright?" she asked, with the bear nodding. With that, Mae made her way up the staircase, out of the station.

Selmers stayed there for a few more moments before standing up. "Farewell, friend," she bid the bigger bear adieu. She wished there was more to be done, but she had to get back to that group. The bear got back up and outside, heading towards an outskirts neighborhood. As she got near the tracks, she spotted the tents of her group's hideout. There was a smoldering campfire, with a black-coated possum man sitting next to it. "Ah, you're back," Selma addressed Conway as she approached.  
"Same to you. Did you find any-... Where's Sadie?" Conway inquired as he looked over to the bear.  
"I, um... Lost her. She's not dead I think, but she just kinda disappeared without a trace. Like, her footprints in the snow just ended!" Selma explained. She only got a slightly suspicious look from the possum in return.  
"Hm. We'll all have to look for her tomorrow. You should get some rest, Selma, you look like you're about to fall over." It was true, she did look incredibly restless from losing Sadie and seeing Chazokov earlier. Selma nodded, heading off into a tent and getting onto a sleeping bag next to an already sound asleep deer lady with piercings. It'd take a few minutes, but sleep would eventually take her in the cold environment.

...  
As Mae walked along back towards the tunnel, occasionally wiping at her nose as the freezing cold was making her nose run, she'd slowly but surely get a certain feeling, as if her body was starting to tell her that she needed to go elsewhere. Her gut pointed her toward the top of the hill, toward those mines. But she shook her head, refusing whatever this strange sensation was as she approached and entered the underground tunnel towards the shelter. She couldn't ignore this forever, but convincing the group to investigate the mines was going to be hard among everything else that was going on. 'Ibon... The Black Goat... Whatever you are,' Mae spoke in her head, as if practicing some kind of encounter with it. 'I'll see you again soon, and you're gonna pay for causing all this.' With that, she fished her journal out of her pocket and flipped over to the page where she had sketched the goat. She aggressively drew X symbols over where the eyes would be and wrote in bold letters, 'KILL'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay and shorter chapter. Had stuff come up for a while x.x


	17. Eide Skudder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae and co. encounter Conway deep in the forest. And all of them encounter a very surprising guest.

Fog enveloped the deep snow-covered woods, casting it in a curtain of grey. It put Mae and her group of friends in a cloud of unease. The group had washed their clothing off to get rid of the blood, but there were some faint red stains stuck on their attire. "Are you absolutely sure about this...?" Bea spoke up, huddled up in her thick black coat.  
"Yeah. We can't deny it any longer, that black goat thing is what's causing this, and we need to find a way to stop it," Mae replied before looking off. "... That sounded more badass in my head," she admitted.  
"For what it's worth, even I kinda believe you now," Angus spoke up. "But, I can't help but feel like we're about to walk up to some eldrich god or demon or whatever without any kind of plan."  
"I have a plan, I explained it earier. I just have to--" the feline started before the group heard voices nearby, to their left. Unable to see the source of it in the fog, they all took up hiding positions behind the trees, some of them hiding two on one trunk, peering out to barely see a group of three wanderers through the fog.  
"... Geez, we really pulled the short straw, huh?" A grey and white male cat in a beige coat sighed, walking alongside Selma, an older owl man in a plad shirt, and the black-coated possum Conway. "What are the chances that Sadie's even here of all places?"  
"Selmers...?" Mae muttered, not expecting to see the bear again so soon after yesterday's encounter.  
"There he is," Gregg quietly growled as he saw Conway with the other three. He rustled a hand into his jacket pocket to grab his knife, but was stopped as Angus put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Come on, keep it down, Danny. This isn't too far off from where she disappeared," Conway told the male cat. "The Afflicted must've cleared out of here and moved back into town. If anything, we're kind of lucky." And as if on cue, a berserk dog man came rushing out of the fog towards the three, making gutteral noises as it ran. Thinking fast, the owl in the group pulled out a rather rusty-looking machete and swung it at the berserker's neck, causing it to stagger as the blade got stuck in it. It didn't take much longer for it to go down fully as the bird yanked the machete out, spraying some blood onto the snowy ground below.  
"Damn, Salvi!" Selma called out.  
"Geez-us..." Danny groaned at the sight of the enemy's blood starting to pool under it. The four of them were about to proceed forward before they all heard a very low, gutteral growling from a distance.

"Oh no... That thing..." Bea spoke lowly to her own group who were still hiding behind the trees. Only one thing can make a sound so low and threatening. It couldn't be any natural creature like a bear. No, it was that fleshy beast for sure.  
"Angus killed it with a chainsaw, though," Gregg pointed out.  
"There could be more of them," Angus guessed.  
"The hell's that...?" Mr. Salvi asked as he backed up slowly.  
"Shit. It's probably that thing I saw back in the trolley tunnel that made everyone run out of there," Selma guessed. Suddenly, they saw the silhouette of something big in front of them, with a tentacular arm outstretched on its right side. Suddenly, a long, white sharp object pierced through the fog and swiftly stabbed into the owl's chest with his flesh catching onto the boney spear, lodging it in his body. Salvi let out a scream of pain followed by a coughing and hacking fit with sprays of blood leaving his beak. As he sank to his knees, panting and shaking with a hand grasping the object that stabbed straight through a lung. The sihlouette moved towards them, revealing itself to have that same fleshy appearence with the tentacle legs and vertically split beak-like mouth as the beast that Angus had dispatched. Its yellow eyes were focused on Salvi as its large mouth opened, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. Salvi could only scream before his head was closed in with those teeth, bit off from the neck without mercy. His body fell limply.  
Danny wasted no time sprinting as fast as he could away from the scene as the monster chomped to break down its heady snack. Selma's eyes were as wide as they could be, but she could barely move her body. Conway scrambled to pull something out of his large coat jacket before he pulled out an old red flare gun, working to place a flare into the breach. But just then, the monster opened its mouth again, flicking one of its multiple long tongues out and slapping the flare gun out of Conway's hands. It flew over near the trees that Mae and her friends were still hiding behind.  
Mae saw the weapon in the snow, practically right next to her. If she didn't do anything, Selma would likely be killed... Mae wasn't going to have that. Without warning, she quickly moved from her cover and picked up the flare gun, closing the breach and clicking the hammer back. She barely had to aim at a target so big, so she pulled the trigger. The flare flew for a couple feet before igniting in a bright red light. As the burning projectile hit the beast, it suddenly found itself in a full coating of orange fire, screaming out as it started to burn. It scrambled, slithering back off into the fog, bumping into a few trees and lathering small flames onto their trunks before it was gone. Luckily it was too cold and moist in the area for the fire to spread.

"... Mae?" Selma addressed as she looked at the cat holding the now unloaded flare gun. The others also revealed themselves. Well, this was slightly awkward.  
"Hey Selmers," Mae replied as casually as she could, putting the weapon down.  
"You know her?" Conway asked the bear.  
"She's my neighbor," the bear told him.  
"... Go back and check on Danny, make sure he doesn't get hurt."  
"Conway? What're you-"  
"Go on. I'll be fine."  
Selma seemed rather nervous, as if she was wanting an explanation, but didn't want to risk anything and headed away, following Danny's tracks in the snow.  
"You're outnumbered," Bea stated.  
"And at this point we're not gonna feel too sorry for beating the shit out of you," Gregg added, slipping his short blade from his pocket.  
"Killing me ain't gonna change anything. Won't help nor hurt you in any way. But you all have blood on your hands. I suppose there won't be any justice for-" Conway started.  
"Shut up," the gator snarled.  
"At least half a dozen people starved to death--"  
"I said SHUT UP!" The other group members turned toward Bea. She almost never raises her voice. On top of that, she looked about ready to rip out the possum's windpipe with her own teeth.  
"Geez, Bea..." Mae muttered in surprise.  
"Well, come at me then! You have that look in your eyes, girl. You've murdered before and you're ready to do it again." The truth was, no one was going for him now because they spotted another tall black hooded figure within the fog behind Conway. They couldn't make it out too well, but it vaguely seemed like there was a snout sticking out from the shadow of the hood. "... What?" the possum asked as he saw everyone's expressions shift before he looked behind him. He was expecting to see some kind of berserk resident of the town, or perhaps some kind of ugly beast, but what he did see sent him stumbling back a step.

...  
"There you are! You alright??" Selma found Danny cowering against the wall of an abandoned house in the outskirts of the town, outside of the woods. The cat offered no response as he panted, his eyes glued wide open. "Geez... Don't worry man, I'm here," the bear console, setting her back on the same wall besides Dan.  
"That thing couldn't have been real..." Danny uttered. "God, he's... He's dead, isn't he?"  
Selma's mind briefly wanted her to reply with something like 'That's generally how losing your head works.' But, now was far from the time for that. "Yeah..."  
"I can't fucking do this anymore... Why is this happening??"  
"I'd love to be able to tell you, but just," the bear sighed. The entire reason the two were even staying here in the town was because of Conway's camp. They wanted to round up survivors and all leave together, but now it seemed like it wasn't worth it at all. Selma pondered their options as she sat down against the wall. "We're safe here, at least."  
"I... I suppose."  
"You up for a hike? We could walk along the highway to Fort Lucenne."  
"I feel like people have tried that plenty of times and died along the way."  
"You got any ideas?"  
"I... No?? I just... Don't wanna move at the moment."  
"I getcha. I'll give you a minute. We can be on our way when you're ready."  
"Thanks, Selma."

...  
Conway stood leaned to one side, his right hand holding his left arm tightly, with blood seeping between his fingers and a red stain starting to appear on the sleeve of his coat. "Gghh... What the hell, Eide??" the possum barked, but the other said nothing to him.  
"Y-You're that guy. The dude who stalked us," Mae recalled. "Well, some of us I guess."  
"How-... We dropped an elevator on you!?" Angus said.  
"You did whatnow?" Lori questioned.  
"It's a long story," Bea offhandedly answered.  
"No seriously, what-" the mouse started before Eide stepped forward towards them, causing each member of the group to tense up. He look at them and uttered a full name.  
"Margaret Borowski."  
His gravelly voice sent a shiver up Mae's spine. The tone was unsettling on its own, but even moreso, how in the world did he know her real name?? Surely this couldn't be really happening, it was just something her mind was conjuring. Eide was dead, for sure, in a broken elevator several meters underground. What she was seeing now was just... a fake figure. Shapes. None of it was real. She was sure of it.  
Time seemed to crawl to a stop for Mae as she stumbled, struggling to keep her footing. All senses went mute, except for her sight as she looked Eide right in the eye. But even her sight started blurring and turning into useless forms and shapes. She could hear muffled voices around her, but no one seemed to be really saying anything. Without warning, she became overwhelmingly dizzy. Was she standing or running? She barely felt in control now as all senses were all but muted.

\---  
"This house is haunted."

Mae watched alongside her parents as her grandfather slumped over from the sitting position he was in on the hospital bed. His last words left the three other cats slightly perplexed, but it was overshadowed by the realization that the much older cat had passed away. This was coming for a while at this point, but it still placed a weight on the other three.  
On the car ride home some time afterward, Mae couldn't help but ponder that last sentence. The house is haunted? Regardless, they were mostly silent in that car as they pulled up to their house. It'd been a long day...

Back at the hospital, a rather tall feline walked up to the reception desk. The cat was a dark grey with dark brown eyes and red highlights along the fur on his head, most notibly on the three round tufts at the top. He seemed slightly old, but not entirely senile. There was an older, vivid red bird lady behind the desk, tapping away at a keyboard as she stared intently at a monitor before noticing the visitor. "Evenin'," the feline greeted. "I'm here to see a Francis Borowski."  
When he received the news of Francis' unfortunate passing minutes prior, his expression barely shifted, and he gave a soft "Hm" before leaving. The lone feline was wanting to gain information following the death of his father, Ed Skudder. He knew that the best way to get that info was from the one who said father worked with. No such luck. With a sigh, he quietly made his way towards the woods and the abandoned mines within. At the mouth of the cave leading into the coal mine, he'd pick up and slip into a jet black coat and put on a helmet with a fake snout at the face before flipping the hood over his head. It was almost time for another offering to the one who rested in the deep hole...  
Eide's eyes glowed blue for a second before he rushed out of the cave and towards town.  
\---

... "We lose 'em?"  
Mae faintly heard a male voice question something as her senses returned to her. First her hearing, then her sight somewhat. She could see Gregg and Kari standing near her as she laid on the ground, trees surrounding the group. And then... Her sense of feeling came back.  
"GHK-!!" Mae jolted as a dull yet intense pain penetrated her abdomen. She grabbed her belly as Kari rushed over to her.  
"You're awake!" the white fox called out.  
"W-What happened...?" Mae asked, trying to ignore the pain stabbing at her.  
"A frickin' horde of those things came outta nowhere! You got bashed in the stomach pretty hard by one of them while you were spacing out. We got separated running from them, and that guy ran off. Conway... Might've made it out too," Gregg explained. "I swear, we have _the_ worst luck, man."  
"Ohh yeah, the worst," the cat agreed before laying her head back and sighing. "... I think I know now."  
"Know what, Mae?" Kari inquired.  
"Eide Skudder. I dunno why I feel so confident, but..."  
"What the heck are you talking about?" Gregg questioned.  
"You remember that guy rambling on next to the hole? He mentioned something about an 'Ed Skudder', and how he had some sorta power. I think that Eide guy could be related to him somehow." The feline looked between Gregg and Kari, who both gave her unsure expressions. "... He was there, right?"  
"Yeah no he was there, we all saw him. I'm just wondering how... Ah screw it, we'll worry about it after we find the others," Gregg decided before helping Mae stand. The cat's legs shook a tad bit as pain dully rung in her stomach area. "We should probably give you a bit to rest up," the fox said, with Mae giving a light shrug in response.  
"So, what was that about... dropping an elevator on someone?" Kari spoke up.  
"I guess there is a bit that we didn't explain. The entire reason we caused a cave-in at the mine was because one of the cultists, Eide, followed us in that elevator and tried to attack!" Gregg explained.  
"He didn't just follow us. He like, teleported or something," Mae added.  
"Yeah. And when he tried to attack us, we slammed the lever for the elevator and... Down it went. Took his arm off at the very least," Gregg continued. There was an awkward silence for a few moments, likely cause it was quite a bit for Kari to take in.  
"... Huh."  
"As weird as it may sound, I got some more answers than I thought I would at first. Some to questions I didn't even ask," the feline admitted. Her plan at first was to descend back into the mine to see if she could confront Ibon head-on. "Let's... Go find the others."


	18. The Glimmer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae encounters Eide yet again after a horde of berserkers scatters her group. Eide lets her in on some stunning information...

...  
Bea ran between the trees until her stamina gave out and she leaned forward with her hands on her knees, panting heavily. Her teeth and snout were laced with dark crimson, a drop of it dripping from her mouth. As she made her escape from the incoming horde, she had been jumped by a manic maroon wolf person. In a last ditch effort to escape its grasp, she snapped up and bit the aggressor's neck, breaking skin and washing blood into her mouth that she could still taste. Now she looked back, seeing that she didn't seem to be trailed, meaning she could at least take a moment to rest and gather her bearings. But just as she thought she was completely alone, she heard someone call out to her. "Bea?"  
The croc turned quickly and saw Germ approaching her from the side. She gave a sigh of relief. "Geez, Germ. Need to put a bell on you..." she mumbled. "You alright?"  
"Yeah I'm fine. You uh... Got a little..." Germ started before pointing towards his beak as to say that Bea had red marks on her own snout.  
"I know. Just... You know where the others are, by chance?" Bea inquired, changing the topic.  
"Nope. Didn't even know where you were until I found you."  
"Well shit," the croc groaned.  
"Hey, Bea?" Germ started.  
"Yeah?"  
"Who was that?"  
Bea's eyes widened slightly. It was obvious that the bird was asking about Eide. "I... Well, he's part of that cult we told you about. For a few days before the mine incident, he was trying to stalk us. Or, I guess mostly stalk Mae. I went to the graveyard with Mae one day and I'm almost sure he found us there," she explained. "And while we were down in the mines, we were trying to get back up using this old-ass elevator. That's when he just... appeared, right behind us."  
"Like, he just teleported?" Germ tilted his head. "Man. Wish I could teleport. It's up there as one of my favorite powers."  
"He either teleported or was just super sneaky. Anyways, we need to get moving, c'mon."

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Angus and Lori sat leaned up against a thick tree.  
"An..." Lori's voice choked out between her pained huffs before she coughed hard, "Angus...?"  
"I'm here, Lori. I'm here. Just stay with me," Angus said, trying to keep his breathing steady. The mouse girl beside him had been surrounded by a group of four berserkers in the horde that ran her and her friends off. She had bleeding cuts along her back, a gash on her arm, several bruises on and around her chest, and a nasty bruise on her leg, which shot a hot, dull pain every time she walked. It all cultivated to a body-wide sting of pain. At least the panic of being surrounded was slowly dying down as she finally opened her eyes again.  
"It hurts..." Lori panted, her eyes watering. "G-God, it hurts..."  
"You're gonna be fine, I'll get you out of here," the bear assured. "Can you walk?"  
"B-Barely..." the blunt force she took to the leg made it hurt to walk on, and it gave her quite a limp on top. It also didn't help that she was getting dizzy from her loss of blood.  
"C'mon, I got you," Angus offered, picking the mouse up and holding her in his arms carefully. "Don't panic, but you're losing a lot of blood. We need to get you back to the shelter where there's first aid."  
"Is everyone else okay?" Lori asked.  
"I... I dunno. I'll get you healed up and check back here for the others. I ain't letting you die, Lori." With that, Angus began to try finding his way out of the woods and back to the underground shelter. The safest place he knew.  
"Hey, Angus?" Lori started, wanting to try and distract herself from the stinging pain running up and down her back.  
"Yeah?"  
"You ever watch Undead Terrors? Pretty old movie series."  
"Nah. Not really a horror movie guy here," the bear admitted.  
"Ah. Well there's one scene where this lady gets cornered by zombies, and you can like see her get ripped up."  
"... How old are you again?"  
"14." After Lori answered, she heard a light sigh from the bear. "But I bring that up cause like, it's thanks to you that I didn't turn out like that."  
"You're very welcome, but please, save your strength," Angus advised.

...  
Mae, Gregg and Kari continued their way through the woods, going uphill until suddenly Gregg's ears perked up. "Hold on."  
"What's up?" Mae asked as the group stopped walking.  
"I remember where we are. We're coming up to that old junk pile at the top of the hill."  
"Oh shit. That means..."  
"If we keep going this way, we're gonna fine the mines again."  
"That was where we were originally intending to go, no?" Kari spoke up. "Find our way back down there... Or, most of our ways back at least."  
"Yeah, yeah. But with the others missing..." Mae started before they were interrupted by a deeply unsavory voice from behind.  
"There you are. How coincidental, you're going down to His territory."  
The three quickly turned to see Eide again. "Son of a bitch," Gregg uttered in response.  
"Oh, calm down whydon'tcha. We got off on the wrong foot way back when. Y'know, with you shooting me in the shoulder, and then having that same arm ripped off by a lift. Thanks for that, by the way," Eide stated sarcastically. "But I can give you something I know you've been wanting. I can give you answers."

"Alright, first question to answer - Just what is your problem? You spent like half a week following us a month ago, were you trying to kidnap us?" Gregg demanded.  
"No. I was wanting to single Mae out and lure her to the mines. But it never worked out, she was always with somebody else, or too inept to use the Glimmer to her advantage. It could have been so easy for me..."  
Mae suddenly moved her hands in front of her in a 'stop' gesture. "Wait wait wait, what you mean the 'Glimmer'? That old guy down there was rambling on about that kind of thing."  
"So the old Borowski truly kept it a secret..." Eide mumbled. "You see, generations ago, my father and your grandfather performed a sort of incantation, offering their blood to Ibon. In return, both the Skudder and the Borowski bloodline would be blessed with a glimpse of His power. A glimmer of divine prowess. With it, they could see into the realm of the gods and spirits at will, convince others to join their cause, and even lightly warp matter to their whims. And as that blood was passed down, we gained that power," he explained. "Although, you are two generations down from Francis Borowski while I am a direct descendant of Ed Skudder. That may be why your powers of the Glimmer are less prominent."  
"Wha...?" Gregg wondered. Kari was at a loss of words, namely out of confusion. But Mae had a realization after hearing this information...  
"Wait... See into the realm of gods?" the feline asked. "T-Those dreams..."  
"Yes. You've seen it, haven't you? Strange dreams where you try to find ghosts and appease giant creatures. Those were all spirits and gods. There is no one true 'God'. But Ibon defected to the mortal realm to help us, and we gave our services in return," Eide spoke.  
"So those dreams were because of that? What about my weird vision, the shapes and all that?" Mae questioned.  
"Er... That might just be an entirely different issue," the cloaked one guessed. "But when Ibon's only way of attain souls to help out this town was broken off, and his supporters had perished, he became enraged. The resulting spell is what has caused this entire mess."  
"Well, that clears that up, I guess?" Gregg spoke. "But what's with the weird fleshy things? The giant monsters?"  
"Oh, the Fallen Angels?" Eide replied.  
"For the love of all that is good, please don't call them that."  
"Certain people who fall under the Affliction will begin to experience a breakdown of their own body. As they cry out, other Afflicted will come to them and allow themselves to merge with the host until they form the beastly body. At which point, control over the body is given to the roaming soul of one of the people who died in that mine, thus creating the Angel."

"Is there... A way to stop all of this?" Kari piped up quietly. It was optimistic to even think that all of this could just be stopped easily.  
"There is one. Although, Margaret, considering you never really learned about your Glimmer until now and never put as much faith into Ibon, you're not going to like it."  
"Try me," Mae replied.  
"We'll both have to sacrifice ourselves to Ibon. Return the blessed blood and souls, so that He may return the divine realm, or seek refuge elsewhere. We'll have to do it together."  
An awkward and heavy silence hung over them for a few moments.  
"... That sounds effin' stupid," Gregg spoke up.  
"Yeah, sorry bud but I'm not planning on just jumping down any holes today. Or tomorrow," Mae snarked.  
"So you want to allow more of this destruction to happen? Because once Possum Springs has been licked clean, the Affliction will spread. Across the state. Across the nation. Across the world," Eide told them. "You've heard His calls, but you've resisted him. He wants you, Borowski."  
"That's enough!" the yellow fox barked, slipping his knife out. "Get away from us, and stop trying to convince Mae to kill herself before I gut you!"  
Just then, Eide tried to make a welcoming gesture with his arms out, although he only had one arm to do so with. "Come on then," he invited, but it only made Gregg freeze up slightly. The fox knew he was being lured into a trap.  
"We should be going on our way," Kari said, taking a step back before the other two joined her.  
"So that's it? You're going to let this world die because you're stubborn?" Eide argued as they began to walk away, heading towards the hill that would grant them access to the underground shelter. Mae was hard set on finding a way to get to and bring an end to Ibon. So what if he's some kind of god? Eide just revealed that Mae apparently has slight god powers of her own. Does that make her an angel? This was all so weird...

Meanwhile, Bea and Germ walked tiredly into the mouth of the hillside tunnel, making their way towards the shelter. Being unsuccessful in their search for anyone else without running into more berserkers, they conceded to simply waiting it out down there for the time being. Hopefully the others would do the same. When they got to the metal door of the shelter, they were surprised when Bea opened the door and they saw Angus in Lori already inside! The two in there were also quite startled by Bea and Germ's sudden appearance, especially with Lori's jacket and shirt off as Angus was stitching up and bandaging the cuts along her back. "W-Woah, hey," the shirtless Lori nervously greeted.  
"Hey. Don't mind us," Germ casually waved.  
"Geez. They got to her pretty badly, huh?" Bea commented, noting the sheer amount of cuts and lacerations on her.  
"I-I'll be fine, though, no need to worry," the mouse assured. "It could've been much worse. If it weren't for Angus here..."  
"Best not to think too hard about it," Angus dismissed. "Alright, think I'm almost done here..."  
Bea watched on as Angus did his best to patch the mouse girl up. Angus truly had a heart of gold, and would seem to do anything to help out his friends, even if it meant getting a coat of blood on his hands. He was there for Bea after her mother died and Mae left for college. If it weren't for him, she... Well, she preferred not to think about that. She could name a long list of good deeds she's done for not only her, but his boyfriend and his other friends.  
"... Hey, Bea?" The gator's chain of thoughts was interrupted as she heard Lori call to her. Bea looked and saw the mouse, now with a towel to cover her upper half as Angus washed off her top. "You alright?"  
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine kid. You gonna be okay?" Bea replied.  
"Kinda woozy, but I'll survive." Just then, everyone heard the metal door open again, with Mae, Gregg and Kari entering the shelter. "What a coincidence, I was just about to bring up that we should look for you guys," the mouse said.  
"Everyone alright?" Kari asked, getting mostly nods and thumbs up in response, with Lori giving a 'so-so' gesture with her hand. "Okay... So, what now?"  
"You guys talk about that. I... Need a minute," Mae excused herself. The giant revelation from earlier had left her with a stinging headache as she walked over, sat down on the cushion of one of the bedrolls and massaged her temples to try and relieve herself.  
"What happened, exactly?" Bea wondered, asking Gregg and Kari.  
"It's... Kinda complicated. And I'm not even sure if it's true. Basically..." Gregg started to explain.

...  
Eide stared at the fleshy altar, looking up at the red eye atop. This was the last of these altars in or around the town. If it were destroyed, then Ibon's defenses would be no more, and He would have to take physical form. This much Eide knew. With his single arm, he flipped the hood off of his head and removed his helmet, revealing his feline head to the winter air. His dark grey fur was a shade lighter at this point, and one of his eyes had gone blind, the pupil now a light grey.  
"She doesn't see you in the same light as I do. It seems as if my duty is now simply to protect you."  
As Eide was talking to the altar, to his idol, he heard another voice call out to him from behind. "There you are, Eide!!" The feline turned to see Conway approaching him, not offering a response. The possum was still clutching his left arm that had received a stab about an hour prior. "What the hell is your problem!? And how are you... Still alive? You were down in the mines when the cave-in happened!" Conway demanded.  
"... So you truly don't have faith in Him or His power," Eide replied. "I won't give too much detail, since it'll be wasted on you."  
"Wh- Huh?" the possum asked before the eye atop the altar glowed very briefly and the altar opened up to reveal a giant, toothy mouth on one side. Conway's eyes opened, but he found that he wasn't able to run away. Instead, he was being pulled towards the mouth! "Wait, no! No!! We can talk this out! I-I believe in the Black Goat! Please, don't--" but his begging was in vain as he entered the wet, meaty opening. "No!! NOOO!!" In a last ditch effort, he reached his right hand out of the mouth, but it proved useless as it closed on him, severing his right arm as it dropped onto the ground.  
Eide silently walked over to the arm, picking it up. It wasn't an exact match, but it worked. The feline moved the end of the arm where his own right arm used to be, and with a series of snaps and other unsavory noises, it became attached. He clenched and unclenched his new hand a few times. "Oh, how I missed having two arms..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gaahhh sorry for the delay! Can never really get myself to focus here lately.
> 
> Also, as of this chapter being posted, this fic has over 280 hits and over 25 kudos! Thank everybody so much!!


	19. Beginning of the End of Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang sets off to destroy the last of Ibon's altars. They narrowly avoid death at the hands of Eide. Now there is one thing left to do...

"... I thought you said we weren't going to meet again."

After night fell upon the town yet again, Mae managed to get herself comfortable and quickly drifted off to sleep. Yet, after some time asleep, she would find herself in the strange place that she thought was simply a dreamscape that she had visited before. She knew now that this wasn't just some dream, but rather a divine, astral realm. Almost immediately, she encountered the giant feline figure she talked with a month prior. Mae specifically remembered this being saying that they would not meet again after their sole discussion.  
"... Well? What am I doing here?"  
"Little creature. You have finally learned the truth of yourself, and your heritage," the being spoke.  
"Yeah, no thanks to you!" Mae threw her hands up. "How come you didn't tell me that I had weird demon powers? I had no idea!"  
"That no longer matters. What matters now, is that you must... Take matters into your own hand. We cannot directly enter your realm without dire consequences."  
"So you want me to kill Ibon, huh?" the smaller feline guessed bluntly. "But how am I supposed to do that? He is, as far as I know, another god. Or like a divine being, whatever fancy talk you wanna use."  
"Allow me to explain. You see, when Ibon defected from our realm, he lost much of the power he had up here, and had to rely on the souls of mortals. Without a clear way to get to him directly, he created altars that he could eat and gain souls from. You have destroyed all but... One of them," the bigger cat told Mae. "The last one is in the direction that your solar body rises from the horizon, directly from the opening of his domain."  
Mae's head ran through the riddle that she was presented with. "... Sooo... East of the mine entrance?"  
"If the 'mine entrance' is where his domain resides, yes. Once the last altar is destroyed, Ibon will be forced to take a physical form, and you can finally stop his wrath upon your people."  
"Sounds... Simple enough," Mae decided. "Question, though... Why did Ibon 'defect'? I feel like I'm missing something here."  
"This tale goes back long before your time, little one. There is much to it."  
"... Maybe another time?"  
"Perhaps. You now understand what you must do, yes?" the big cat inquired, with Mae nodding in response. "Very good. You must make haste. Your... Town, your settlement does not have much time. And if Ibon's wrath is allowed to spread..."  
"Then I might have to step in," an unfamiliar voice rang out. Mae looked up to see what looked like a giant blue bell with one eye.  
"Oh hey, you're the bell that ends the world when you ring. Something like Tollmetron?" Mae spoke. "Wait, hold on. If that's Tollmetron... Hey, big cat, what's your name?"  
"My name... was lost a long time ago. I once went by the name of Corvin during my time with the mortals," the big feline answered.  
"Corvin... Corvin the Thief??" Mae recalled. "Holy crap, you're Asscat! Man, so the constellations are like, actually gods? Weird. What about Mundy, the world fish?"  
"Where do you think we are, little one?" Tollmetron chimed in. His voice was notably higher than Corvin's, and his tone was slightly more... Casual? "Mundy provides stable ground in this realm. When we get visitors such as yourself, he helps shape the environment they see in accordance to their own selves."  
"Huh. Well, alright then. I know what I have to do," Mae brought up. "I should probably get back to like, proper sleep. Got a big day tomorrow, killing a god and all that."  
"Very well," Corvin obliged.  
"Will we meet again?" the smaller cat inquired.  
"... Perhaps," was the bigger one's response. Just then, everything faded around Mae as she was gently pulled from this strange, strange realm.

...  
It was the morning after, and Mae oddly found herself waking up before everyone else. She tried to stretch her grogginess out, but it stuck with her. Ah well, just gotta get up and make breakfast alone as the strange revelations of the last 24 hours soak further into her mind. Luckily she wouldn't be alone with her thoughts for long, as the other group members would soon wake up as well. "Well, you're up early," Bea commented to the feline, noting how she was usually waking up in the afternoon.  
"Eh, I'm just happy to be waking up at all," Mae admitted. As the rest got up and ate whatever rations they could for a semi-hearty breakfast, they gathered around.  
"So, what's the plan?" Gregg asked.  
"I know exactly what we have to do," Mae spoke up. "Don't ask how I know, but the last of those weird altar things is to the east of the mine entrance."  
"How convenient. So, we destroy it, and then...?" Kari questioned.  
"From there, we go back into the mines for real this time, and maybe Ibon will be there," the feline told. "I heard from somewhere that destroying it will make him take a 'physical form'."  
"I don't like that you threw in a 'maybe'," Angus admitted.  
"Yeah really. Mae, we shouldn't do anything unless we know it's going to work," Bea said.  
"I mean honestly, if it has a chance of working, we should try it," Lori piped in.  
"Better than nothing, really," Gregg added.  
"Yeah, see? And if we don't do this, things are only going to get more effed up. So c'mon," Mae ushered, making her way to the door and opening it. The others, not having much of a choice, followed her back out.

With the sun still rising in the early morning, the group would backtrack towards the entrance of the accursed mines. Once they got close enough, they began their way eastward. Gregg already had his knife out in preparation. "So, what's our plan after all this is done?" Lori wondered as they walked  
"Our idea was to move out of the town, since it's been so thoroughly screwed over," Bea brought up. "It'd be a stretch, but we could try getting to Bright Harbor and just... figure things out from there."  
"If we could, I'd have us move all the way across the country from this place. Like Whitewater, up in Washington. But yeah, Bright Harbor works too," Mae responded.  
As they continued along, their shoes crunching the snow beneath them and leaving a trail in the woods. Gregg and Mae both occasionally looked back to make sure they weren't being followed, but eventually, the group would spot the meaty altar. "There it is! Alright, now we just have to-" Gregg started enthusiastically before an arrow suddenly flew past his head from behind and landed in the side of a tree. Startled, the group quickly turned around to see Eide behind them with a small crossbow in his newly gained right hand. Eide no longer had that helmet on, opting to show his feline face to the band. This was the first time any of them had seem his real face. That grey fur with the red highlights and tuft, the one black pupil and the other grey one, the early signs of aging that were visible on him.  
"Stop. Right. There." Eide spoke.  
"Hey, that's my crossbow you asshole!" Gregg called out.  
"I know. You did leave it down there, after all. Still getting used to this new arm, so my aim was off."  
"So what now, are you gonna try to fight all of us?" Mae snarked. Eide gave no immediate response. Instead, he suddenly fell backwards, quickly disappearing into the ground before reappearing directly behind Kari, quickly placing the fox in his hold with a knife up to her throat. Kari's breath hitched in fear as the others looked on wide-eyed.

"Woah, hold on. Let her go. She had nothing to do with any of this," Mae reasoned carefully as Kari tried to keep herself as still as she could, knowing that one wrong move could end her right then and there.  
"Come on, Margaret. You can make this easier for everyone. If you continue this, you will create a scenario bigger than you can imagine," the taller feline inched the blade closer to the fox's white fur. "Go back to that mine and let me meet you there, or she gets it."  
Suddenly, Lori rushed up from the side and grabbed onto Eide, making him let go of Kari as the mouse bit down aggressively on Eide's arm. The feline yelped out in pain before reaching behind and grabbing Lori, getting her off him and slamming her down. "You goddamn VERMIN!" Eide shouted, about to plunge his blade down into her before Angus also rushed him and got him in a tight hold. Bea would join in, both of them holding either side of the tall cat.  
"Gregg, go! Destroy that thing!" Angus shouted, looking over to the altar for a moment before focusing on holding Eide. Gregg stumbled for a moment before rushing over towards his target.  
"Not so fast!" Eide called out. His eyes flashed red for a moment before he suddenly phased out of Angus' hold and into the ground again before rising up in front of the fox, who stopped dead in his tracks. The tall feline raised his blade up before swinging it down towards Gregg. Luckily the fox reacted quick enough to block the swing his his own knife, but recoiled from the force. As he recovered, Eide would raise his blade again, only to be suddenly stopped by a rock bouncing off his head. Recoiling, the cat looked on to see Mae running up to him before he was tackled onto the ground in a series of pained grunts.  
Mae wildly threw punches onto Eide until she found herself being hit hard on the side of the chest. The wind was knocked out of her as the taller cat kicked her off of him. Gregg took a step back as they both got back up, Mae gripping where she was punched. "C'mon..." Eide taunted, the whites of his eyes glowing red now and his pupils glowing white. "I know you've got it in you. Open your Nightmare Eyes, Margaret."  
"Nightmare... wha?" Mae panted. Everyone had frozen up from how Eide's eyes were glowing up. Without warning, Eide suddenly thrusted his knife straight towards the shorter feline.  
Mae froze up and her eyes shut tight as the blade flew towards her.  
"Mae!!" she could hear Kari cry out to her...

\---  
"I have nightmare eyes!!"  
Mae was absolutely wasted off of only a few cups of watered down beer. And now she was yelling at the top of her lungs next to a large campfire out in the woods about whatever came out of her mouth at that moment.  
"And the lazt thing you see is my eyes outside your window, and then I ztab you with me knife! Stab stab staaaab!!"  
A sober Mae would have no idea what she was going on about at this point, but Sober Mae was nowhere to be seen here. Instead, the feline accidentally spilled a secret that even she wasn't aware about. Something special about her eyes... Her nightmare eyes.  
\---

Mae twitched slightly, her eyes still shut tight until she realized that she... didn't feel any blade cut into her. Her eyes peeked open and she looked down to see that Eide's knife had gone into her, but it was less like it stabbed her and more like it... phased through her. On the other side, Eide could see that the whites of Mae's own eyes were now a bright blue, and her pupils had gone from red to a neon violet. The shorter cat stepped back, with the blade effortlessly slipping out, leaving no wound. "Y'see? That's the true potential of the Glimmer shining through," Eide started. It was at this point that Gregg decided that enough was enough and ran past the two felines towards the altar. "Hey, stop!!" Eide called out, giving chase. Mae tried to stop him with a quick grab, but her arms phased through him as he fell forward, and involuntarily fell past the snow and ground underneath.  
Gathering his bearings, Mae oddly enough found herself in an environment resembling space, but the ground was above her as she floated there. It was like she was underwater, with the ground being the surface. With this in mind, she got herself to move forward until she was right under Eide...  
Eide was going to catch up to Gregg before something suddenly grabbed at his ankle, causing him to fall. He looked back to see Mae's hand holding his ankle as the shorter cat climbed out of the ground. "Going somewhere?" Mae snarked.  
"No, wait, stop!" Eide panicked before Gregg reached the altar, quickly stabbing its big red eye. It let out a loud scream as the fox stepped back, watching as the ground collapsed under it and it fell down into a hole. Eide panted as Mae let go of him and his own eyes flickered back to normal, no longer glowing. The taller cat was laid on his front, watching as the group approached him. "Y-You... You effing morons... What do you think you have done??" he cried out before Gregg reeled back his foot and kicked the feline straight in the nose, causing him to yowl out in pain, grunting as a trickle of blood began to stream from one of his nostrils.  
"Whatever sorta cosmic consequences this is all gonna have, we'll just deal with it," Gregg assured before squatting down next to Eide with his blade still out. "Now hold still..." he held the blade near the feline's neck. Kari quickly covered Lori's eyes and looked away herself. But... Gregg's hand shook. Eide took this moment of hesitation to quickly get himself up as he began running. "Shit!" Gregg cursed, about to give chase before Angus quickly put a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon, Bug. We're gonna lose too much time if we chase after him." Angus wouldn't have minded having Eide die right here and now, but there were more pressing matters at hand. "And Mae-" he started, but he ended up joining the other group members in looking at those strange glowing eyes of hers. "Mae, uh... What's up with your eyes?"  
"Uhh... Kind of a good question. I'm guessing it has something to do with that Glimmer stuff we keep hearing about. Everything kinda looks more... Bluish, but I see something red way underground, under there..." Mae pointed toward the mine.  
"It's probably, uh... Him. It. Whatever," Gregg supposed. "It's time to end this shit, once and for all."

And so, they headed westward, through the woods, towards the mine.  
Beyond the mine, there would be a deep, bottomless hole.

The Hole at the Center of Everything.


	20. Ibon's Domain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group ventures down into Ibon's home. With the mines barricaded by the cave-in a month prior, Mae must face Ibon by herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of back-and-forth in this chapter.

\---  
"So you must know what became of her," Mr. Chazokov had said to Mae on the rooftop as the feline looked through his telescope, a month or so ago.  
"... Yeah," Mae responded. They were talking about Adina Astra, one of the many figures immortalized as a dusk star.  
"How she, in her quest, turned her back on the sky and journeyed into the earth where the stars were no longer above her head, and was never seen again."  
"Yeah. Whatever."  
"Is that not a sad end?" the bear inquired.  
"No. Disappearing isn't the same as dying. She probably went somewhere else completely, and did all kinds of cool shit," spoke an optimistic Mae.  
"Oh my!"  
"Yeah. So, whatever."  
\---

'Disappearing isn't the same as dying...' The thought repeated itself in Mae's mind as the group slowly went downhill, approaching the entrance of the coal mine. Her glowing eyes looked towards the opening  
"Here we are..." Gregg spoke. All of them had a tinge of dread coming over them, but this had to be done.  
"I never thought I'd ever do something that would, like, shape the future of the world before," Mae admitted.  
"Life is like that sometimes," Germ spoke up.  
"Is it now?" Gregg asked in response.  
"Nah," the bird shrugged.  
"Hold on guys," Lori spoke up before they could enter. "I wanna say something before we do this, and I wanna say it now in case we somehow die and I lose the chance to say it," the mouse proposed. "This thing's name is Ibon, right?" she asked, getting some nods in response. Lori cleared her throat. "Ibon is dead. Ibon remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murders? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our--"  
"Are you just quoting Nietzche?" Angus interrupted.  
"I just kinda read the quote off of somewhere on the internet and thought it'd be cool to quote it," the mouse answered.  
"C'mon, we're wasting time," Bea ushered, about to take a step forward until the group heard what sounded like low, slithery sounds to their side, along with raspy growling. They all turned to see one of those 'Fallen Angel' creatures, but it seemed to be severely burned along its entire ash-coated body, and its movements were slow and jagged.  
"Holy crap, it's the monster I burned with the flare gun yesterday," Mae recalled.  
"Is it really going to try and come up to us now?" Gregg asked, surprised it was coming straight for them.  
"It's probably not looking for a fight. Nobody... Move..." the feline whispered as the creature got up relatively close, about 10 feet away before it collapsed. Its shriveled eyes stared directly at Mae.

"B... Borowski..." a deep, growly voice emanated from the beast's mouth, causing the group members to recoil in surprise. "You... Traitorous..."  
"Look, I didn't even know that I had any connections to this thing until like, yesterday. And even if I did, I wouldn't help out a weird hole demon that effing eats innocent people!" Mae argued.  
"Arrogant... Until the end. Come then... I will meet you down there..." the beast replied, Ibon speaking through its mouth until it sighed out a raspy breath and went still.  
"... The fuck?" Gregg questioned. Some of the others just shifted unsurely in response.  
"Guessing he was always trying to use those things to communicate, but they always got so aggressive that it almost never worked out," Mae supposed. "Or maybe we're just going crazy and that didn't happen at all."  
"Nah, we all heard it," Angus assured.  
"Well, good to know he's just waiting for us," Bea guessed as they finally walked into the cave, where the clear blue sky was no longer above their head. They trudged along further underground, with the glow of Mae's Nightmare Eyes being more pronounced in the dark.  
"So you guys walked through here once?" Lori asked.  
"Yep. Didn't think we'd have to come back," Mae admitted. "Would be a nice place to film a horror movie, if it wasn't for the fact that there's like, actually bad stuff going down here."

The group carefully moved their way through the narrow cave, but then they had to stop. A barricade of rocks and wooden supports stopped them from advancing to the elevator that would take them down to the hole. "Ah, shit. Didn't even think of that..." Gregg said.  
"What now?" Lori pondered.  
"... Hey Gregg, mind handing me your knife?" Mae would ask, with the fox carefully placing the handle of the knife in her hand. "I can sorta walk through walls with the whole Glimmer thing, so..."  
"You're gonna go at it alone?" Angus spoke up.  
"You do realize that if you kill Ibon and lose your power, you're gonna be trapped down there, right?" Bea brought up.  
"... I know," was Mae's response. "But what other choice do we have?"  
"We could search for another way around!" Kari insisted. But Mae just knew, as if it were inhereted knowledge, that this was the only way. Without another word, the feline would walk forward, getting herself to start phasing through the rubble blocking the group's path. "Mae! No!!" Kari cried out, rushing ahead and pressing on the wall of rubble, but it was too late as the cat could no longer be seen. "Mae!! Come back!"

'I'm sorry, everyone. I just... Want this to end. I want you all to be safe again. I'm partly the reason all of this happened in the first place, anyways. If I never came back, we would've never killed the cultists and...' Mae thought up an apology in her mind before she emerged at the bottom of the broken elevator shaft. "It's better this way..." the cat decided, starting to walk forward towards the church-like area of the mine.

...  
Eide stopped running, putting his hands on his knees as he leaned forward, catching his breath with droplets of crimson dripping from his nose onto the snow below him as he rested under a tree. He blinked his eyes open, which had been shut tight as he ran through the freezing winter air. "Damnit..." he cursed under his breath. He could hardly breathe through his nose, and trying to touch it sent a sharp pain through it. It had to have been broken. But as he continued looking down and panting, he suddenly felt something wet and slimy fall on his head. He jolted, looking up to see another one of the giant fleshy beasts above him, its tentacle legs coiled around various branches and limbs. Its mouth hung open, droplets of saliva starting to drip from it. "Oh, shit..." Eide's eyes were wide.  
"You have failed me for the last time," Ibon's words emanated from the beast's mouth.  
"N-No, you don't have to do this, I can-" Eide began to beg, but was cut off as one of the creature's multiple tongues suddenly roped down and wrapped itself around the feline's neck, hoisting him up as his legs began to flail about. He couldn't breathe.  
He tried to grab at the tongue to pull himself up and gain leverage, but to no avail as his grip faltered and the wrapping around his neck only grew tighter. He couldn't breathe.  
He tried to gasp in for a breath of life-giving air, but only gave a raspy choke as his airway was constricted and the vertabrae in his neck felt like they were going to break. He couldn't breathe.  
He couldn't breathe.  
He was starting to black out. Try as he might, he couldn't stop the heavy drowsiness that was washing over him before he went limp, the life being choked out of him before he was tossed away like a useless ragdoll. With that, the beast fell from the tree and onto the ground, grabbing one of the feline's ankles and dragging him along as it quickly made its way westward towards the coal mine...

Meanwhile, back in the cave behind the wall of rubble, the group members searched for a possible alternative route to get down. They eventually found a metal door, but try as Gregg might, he couldn't get the door to budge at all. "Damnit! It's gotta be jammed or something," the fox huffed.  
"What are we gonna do, we can't just leave her, I..." Kari worried, her breath shaking a tad. "I never even got to tell her that I..."  
"Hey, c'mon, I'm sure she'll find a way back up once she's done," Angus assured with a caring hand on Kari's shoulder. "I think she's getting used to the whole 'nearly dying but finding a way out' thing."  
"She better. We didn't survive all of this just so that she can die!" Gregg added.  
"Ssh," Angus shushed.  
"What?" Bea asked, her eyes shifting.  
"Something's coming..." the bear told everyone quietly. Soon, they could all hear that sick slithering noise echoing in the mine.  
"You've gotta be kidding me...! How many of those things are there?" Gregg wondered, looking around for a weapon since his knife was now in Mae's hands. There was a rusty pipe near that metal door, and the fox picked it up, readying himself. They all looked to see the giant flesh beast, the Fallen Angel, approaching them in this tight space. It hoisted Eide's body up before reeling back and chucking it towards the group. It flew towards Kari, slamming into her and sending her falling back. The fox grunted in pain, shutting her eyes as she fell back on the wall of rubble. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Eide's face, eyes rolled up and bloodshot. The fox screamed in fear, her white fur standing on edge as she scrambled to get the robed body off of her.  
The beast then opened the end of its tendril arm, aiming the opening towards Lori. The mouse froze up at the sight as it got ready to fire.  
"Look out, kid!" Bea shouted. Seeing as she was right next to the mouse, she quickly pushed her out of the way. The beast fired its long, boney projectile at the moment.  
Bea gasped, his body tensing up.

...  
"Can you feel it? The unending pain? The knowledge that, despite your efforts, you are doomed to be forgotten in this deep void? Part of you may remain, but eventually you will be mere distant memories, and nothing of you will exist in this world."  
Ibon's deep voice echoed both through the underground church and in Mae's head. The feline saw a pair of red glowing eyes with slotted pupils open in the passage leading ahead before a giant, fully black goat being stepped ahead to reveal itself from the shadows.  
"You don't understand my intentions. My goal, my simple goal was to create my own Heaven within this realm. But I had to start... Small. I needed help. And after some time, and influencing my surroundings ever-so-slightly... I got the help I needed. The spring that your Possum Springs was built off of was poison, but the pioneers stayed and built their settlement... Because of my influence," Ibon explained.  
"This all sounds like a load of not my problem, honestly," Mae snarked. "If your 'heaven' is gonna make everyone either crazy or dead, you can forget it. I'm not afraid of you-" the feline continued before she was suddenly thrown upwards to the ceiling and let to fall back onto the ground. "N-Nope. Still not afraid." She huffed, getting herself up and gripping the knife in her hand. Without another moment's hesitation, she tried to rush toward Ibon, only to be suddenly faced with a nonstop gust of wind. She managed to keep her footing, naturally able to keep her balance as she pushed ahead slowly. With an unsteady right hand, she raised the blade of her knife before swinging it down. Luckily, she managed to get a good, deep cut on her target before she was thrown back by then wind, falling onto her back before getting up again.  
The cat looked ahead to see the cut on the side of Ibon's head as it leaked blood onto the ground below. "So you can bleed..." a smile came to her.  
"You... You have already killed me, Borowski. I now lack much of the power I had been accumilating for generations. If it weren't for that, I could kill you without needing to think about it," the goat admitted. "But now... I find myself betrayed by both you and Skudder. Perhaps my decision to put faith in mortals was one destined to put me in this very... Situation. But that does not mean I shall allow myself to simply roll over and DIE!" his voice boomed throughout the room as a few wooden supports broke off with the pieces. Mae dodged most of the improved projectiles that were being hurled at her, until the last one slammed into her side, making her grunt loudly as a blunt pain came to her.  
Her heart was pounding as adrenaline coursed through her veins. Clutching her side with one hand and the knife with the other, she rushed ahead again and aimed to stab Ibon in the neck.

...  
"Bea! O-Oh my god, Bea!!" Lori yelped at the sight. Bea weakly clutched the long spike that had shot through her lower chest, her own blood starting to pool under her. Meanwhile, Gregg was in the middle of beating down the fleshy beast with such energy that had never been seen from him, surprisingly. Germ was also doing what he could to attack and weaken it, but couldn't muster as much strength to do so as he mostly just kicked it in the side as hard as he could. Soon, Gregg would toss his rusty pipe aside before grabbing at one of its large yellow bulbous eyes. "If I can't have two eyes, neither can you, asshole!" the fox shouted before ripping the eye clean out of its socket. The beast roared in pain before grabbing Gregg with its arm and tossing him aside. It then began to move backwards, backing away from the group as blood gushed from its eye socket. In a last ditch effort, it tried to fire two more of those long spikes, but they ended up only hitting the rocky walls of the cave. "Hey!! COME BACK HERE!" Gregg yelled.  
"Don't go after it, Gregg," Germ advised, catching his breath. He slowly turned toward Bea, who had Lori, Angus and Kari near him. The gator panted weakly, her body shaking as she continued to bleed.

"Damnit, it... It must have hit a major artery. She's... Losing a lot of blood," Angus regretfully told.  
Bea coughed and hacked, her body shaking more as droplets of blood shot out of her mouth with the last cough. "S-Somebody... Please... M-Mother..." she stammered, her eyes shut tight in both pain and fear.  
"Is there anything we can do??" Kari asked, panicked. "Bea, just... Just stay with us!"  
"Bea, y-you didn't have to..." Lori huffed, a heavy pressure coming to her seeing as the croc saved her in exchange for... this.  
"Oh, hush, you..." Bea managed to compose herself. It didn't hurt for her anymore. She was now as numb physically as she had been emotionally for years now. Seems she's gone full circle now. "You don't deserve to die. None of us do. I'm just... Glad it wasn't any of you who had... this... happen..." the croc sighed out. "And Kari, you're gonna... be there for Mae, right...?" Before anyone could respond, her body relaxed itself as she went still.  
Angus pulled Gregg close to his side. Germ removed his hat from the top of his head, moving it to his chest. Lori's eyes shut tight as she tried not to break into crying then and there. The mouse still felt as if this was her fault.  
Kari took a step forward. "I'll... I'll be there for her. I promise, Bea."

...  
Mae was only able to see the face and two front hooves of Ibon. But that's all she needed to see to determine that she has won this fight as deep cuts and stabs laced his body. "Kind of impressed you're still alive," Mae snarked. Every time she had gone to attack, Ibon had retaliated to the best of his ability, only to leave Mae with a few bruises under her dark blue fur. Suddenly, Ibon used the last of his strength to lift up a sharp sawblade behind Mae and hurled it at her. Mae's ears twitched and she reacted as fast as she could to duck down, but it was slightly too late as the jagged blade cut straight through her right ear, knicking half of it clean off. The feline sucked in a breath through gritted teeth as a sharp pain burned where the ear was cut off. Quickly getting up, she rushed ahead, picking up the thrown sawblade which now had a few blodges of her own blood on it before slamming the blade against Ibon's face and pushing it in hard enough to cut into the skull.  
Ibon let out a pained cry of defeat as a spray of blood gushed from the large wound. Along with that, Mae was suddenly pushed back again, landing quite hard on her back as she yelped out in pain. The giant goat's eyes stopped glowing as he went still. Mae's eyes also stopped glowing. Ibon was dead. And now Mae found herself stunned by a blunt pain in her back. It was so dark, she couldn't see anything... But she suddenly started footsteps approaching her. One person. Did her friends find a way past the barricade and send one person to come rescue her? No, that couldn't be it. Could it be... Eide?  
Mae was unaware of Eide's demise, and the idea of him finding a way to get to her and exact revenge made her breath quicken. "H-Hello?" she called out. No response. It had to be him. "W-Well, guess you've caught me. I'm... powerless to stop whatever you're gonna do. So if you're gonna kill me, then do it. If not..." her eyes closed as she braced for the worst. But then she heard a rather familiar voice. It was old, and it had a slight southern undertone to it.

"Now why on Earth would I kill you?"


	21. Preparing to Move Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beatrice is laid to rest. The group prepares to make the move to a new home.

Mae was caught off-guard by the voice she heard. She opened her eyes and noticed there was a light coming from somewhere. She looked and saw that the light was coming from a lantern, of which was being held by a familiar tall bird man with a mostache growing at the bottom of his beak. He had a red plad shirt on and a tool belt. "Holy crap, it's you..." Mae uttered at the sight.  
"Yep yep. The door leading back up was broken, so I came by to fix it right quick," the janitor replied.  
"Wait, how did you kn-- Wha- Huh?" Mae was confused.  
"C'mon, it ain't no big deal. Let's get you up, Mae," the bird said, walking over and extending an arm down towards the cat. Mae grabbed his hand and let herself be helped up as she tried to ignore the pain in her back.  
"I'm gonna ask again, alright? Who are you? Why do you know my name?" Mae pestered.  
"I'm just the janitor. As for your name, I actually heard it while you were in the hospital for the coma you were in a month ago," the bird explained.  
"... Why were in the hospital with me?"  
"There was a door that needed fixing."  
"... I'm starting to feel like 'fixing doors' is your excuse to see me, cause it's always so convenient. Are you my guardian angel or something?"  
"Nah," the janitor replied - though Mae didn't believe that - as they made their way upwards to the metal door that was jammed earlier. It would lead them right back to where Mea's friends were.  
"Well, thanks for coming for me. Would've sucked if I were just trapped down there until I-" Mae started, but then noticed that the janitor was no longer next to her. She quickly looked around, unable to see where he went. "...?" Whatever, no time to ponder. With a smile, Mae turned the handle of the metal door and pushed it open. "Alright guys, it's don--" she started before seeing that everyone was roughly crowded around something. Mae's eyes widened and she sucked in a hollow breath when she saw what they were looking at. "No... No, no nononoNONO!" she panicked, her head shaking before she bolted, rushing over to the crocodile on the ground and dropping to her knees next to her. This wasn't like the situation with her parents, where she watched them die in the midst of a torrent of stress and adrenaline. Bea was just found unmoving. "Bea!! BEA!" she cried, her eyes watering at the sight. "Bea, wake up! Please!" the cat begged, gripping Bea's black coat. "Please, wake up... Please, B-Beebee..." Mae shook with a sniffle, powerless to stop the tears from flowing as she realized that Bea wouldn't be getting up.  
She was gone. The one that she spent so long rekindling her friendship with over the Fall season, the one that helped Mae get a new job after the cult incident, the one that called her something of a little sister...  
...  
It was too much. The others got to witness as the intense as the intense pressure building up in Mae's chest billowed out in a despaired cry and the cat hugged onto Bea, burrowing her face onto that thick black coat. Germ's eyes closed as he looked away, but poor Mae's wailing could not be ignored. Lori couldn't take the sight anymore, gripping onto Kari as she sobbed. Kari tried to comfort her as Gregg slowly approached Mae, gently pulling her up. "C'mon... I-I'm sorry, but..." he tried to console. After some time, Mae let herself be pulled up and off of the croc, gripping onto Gregg as she tried to stabilize her breathing.  
Angus walked over, carefully picking the croc up. "We're not leaving her," the bear stated. Physically, she was quite light and carrying her wasn't too hard. But at the same time, it was the heaviest and one of the hardest things he's had to do. The group made their way through the cave toward the exit. Soon, they got out into the afternoon air. "Alright. We... We're going to have to bury her," Angus informed, trying his best to keep his composure, but as Gregg looked up towards him, the fox could see a tear rolling down from the watery eyes behind his glasses. Gregg had never, ever seen his boyfriend cry, and despite the circumstances it still surprised him.  
For some time, especially after Mae left for college two years ago, Angus was Bea's best friend, and vice versa to a degree. Angus helped her out emotionally after her mother died. Even if he couldn't help out with the debt that came with it, he at least kept her from going off the deep end entirely. And... For what? For this? It was all extremely unfair.

Meanwhile, Mae's mind was positively scrambled as the group found a shovel possibly left by a cultist way back when, and Angus began to dig. Mae didn't want to watch. She closed her eyes, but could still hear as Angus sighed solemnly before pulling the boney spikes out of her. Would not want to just leave those in. Eventually, Mae would wipe her wet eyelids and open her eyes as the croc was given to the earth.

It felt like an eternity was passing by as Bea was buried. Even after all that was accomplished here, death was a cruel finality. Everyone said their fair share of words regarding her, and afterwords they set off, away from the hell that was the coal mine. "So... What're we doing now?" Germ asked.  
"I... I guess we just get ready to get out of here," Gregg supposed.  
Seeing as Angus still had the shovel he used for the burial, he brought up, "I'm going to find some of the others that have died and bury them as well. The pastor, Mr. Chazokov, the uh... The Borowskis..." he said lowly. Mae hardly registered what he said, her mind was buzzing at this point. "You all go on and get ready, I'll meet you with soon."  
"I'll go and help you out with that. After we're done, I'm gonna get home and check on my family," Germ added.  
Some of them were going to object that it was going to take all day for Angus and Germ to do that, but they kept quiet. "I'll gather our stuff at the apartment," Gregg spoke up.  
"Would you mind if I went with, and we can get my stuff from home after?" Lori asked. "Just... Don't wanna be alone is all."  
"Yeah, that's cool by me."  
"I'm gonna get home and get my stuff together," Mae said.  
"I'll come with," Kari offered. She'd be there for Mae, after all.  
"Alright. Thanks, Kari," the feline found a bit of comfort in not going alone.

Mae and Kari made their way through the town. A few survivors were assessing the situation as any of the remaining manics had regained their consciousness without explanation. But it didn't matter to Mae. Possum Springs no longer mattered to her. It was a place of pain and bad memories, and she had to move on.  
"Hey, Kari?" Mae started as they walked beside the main road.  
"Yeah?" Kari responded, her attention grabbed.  
"Are you gonna... Come with us? Out to Bright Harbor, I mean."  
"Shouldn't I?"  
"Well, don't you have a home to get back to?"  
"Mh... I'm going to be honest, I've been meaning to break ties with the people I've been living with for some time now. This way I can make a clean break," the fox admitted.  
"Oh. You wanna talk about it?" Mae asked.  
"Maybe later."  
Getting past Towne Centre and further up the street, they eventually turned onto Maple Street. From there, Mae could see her empty house. Damnit, that sensible weight was coming back to her chest again. As the pair got up to the house, Mae turned the handle of the front door and opened it up...  
  
The memories. God, the memories from this peaceful home, they all came flooding in. She knew at some point she'd have to move out, whether it be voluntarily or because of the bank taking it. She didn't envision that this would be the cause. Her heart felt heavy, but she kept herself from breaking again. With some time, Mae and Kari would gather some essential items into some suitcases. But before they could leave this house for the last time, Kari stopped the feline with a quick "Hey Mae?"  
"Hm?" Mae looked over before she was suddenly hugged by the fox. Mae was caught slightly off-guard, but... This felt nice. Hesitating for a moment, the cat brought her arms up to wrap around Kari in return.  
"I'm sorry all of this happened. But if anything, we can... look forward to a better future," Kari tried to comfort. Mae's hug only tightened a bit. Geez, this physical affection actually felt really nice, even if it was a bit odd to Mae that it wasn't a relative or something hugging her.  
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. You're good, Kari," Mae said.  
Kari decided that now was a good time to mention something, since they were alone. "You remember back in that shelter, when you all found that cooler of drinks?"  
"... Yeah?" the cat raised a brow at Kari suddenly bringing this up.  
"Well, when you were drunk, you ended up, uhh... You called me hot," Kari informed, causing Mae's eyes to widen in embarrassment. "But I don't mind. You're the first person to call me hot. And you know what they say, being drunk makes someone say things they keep secret while sober."  
"Y-Yeah. Um..." This was awkward for the feline.  
"And truth be told, I... Think I may have a thing for you too. It's just... I dunno. Something Bea told me to do back in the shelter was to tell you about this. We can... worry more about it when we're settled in Bright Harbor."  
"Yeah, sounds good," Mae awkwardly replied. "... Can we stay hugging like this for a bit longer?" she asked, rubbing her head on the fox's shoulder a bit.  
"Of course."

Four hours later.  
The group finally reconvened next to the war memorial statue in Towne Centre. "So, looks like we're ready," Angus counted. "The plan is to walk over into Briddle, and take a bus over to Bright Harbor where we can start setting up with money that me and Gregg had saved up."  
"Also the money that I... nabbed from the Snack Falcon register earlier," Gregg pointed out.  
"... Right," the bear side-eyed Gregg.  
"This is gonna take a while, but it'll be worth it," Mae sighed. It was both a solemn sigh, but also one of relief. The people she lost here, they would never truly be gone. That's what she believed, at least. "Wonder if there could be any abandoned places we could set up and... I dunno, play in?"  
"I wouldn't have thought that playing would be on your mind, honestly," Gregg responded.  
"Eh, I'm just looking for something normal to do after all of this. Anyone uh, know anything about drums?" the cat asked.  
"Casey used to give me some lessons here and there," Germ responded.  
"Could work," Mae shrugged. "I've actually had an idea of a song to write myself. You guys remember Weird Autumn, yeah?"  
"Oh yeah! That one is actually one of my favorites from what we've wrote while you were at college," Gregg answered excitedly.  
"Well..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. God, this story was a trip to write, and I feel like my writing skills likely increased just through the course of making it.  
> Stranger Winter as a concept was spawned by a sudden thought of "What if the Black Goat was real and got super pissed about the cultists dying". Originally the Affliction that would turn everyone mad was going to spread much further and the cast was going to have to take a trip throughout the story over to a safe place in Bright Harbor, but I decided to make it smaller scale for convenience. Writing began in October in a series of word documents until I created an AO3 account to start posting this in. The rest is history.


	22. (Epilogue) The End of Winter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lori visits Gregg and Angus after everyone gets settled down.

Two months later. Bright Harbor.

Gregg and Angus were lounging in the living room of their small apartment building, with the bear checking up on either news or social media feeds. They were letting themselves enjoy a day off from their rather low-paying jobs. It wasn't much, but it got them through so far after the saved up money was used between all of the group members for the first month of rent and utilities. Gregg worked as a cashier at a Fuel & Go gas station on the highway, while Angus stocked at the local Ham Panther. Gregg had obtained a black eye patch to cover up the wound he had sustained on his eye. He couldn't help but lament the loss of that eye, but he had to admit... He looked kickass with the eye patch.  
Suddenly, as the two continued to sit around, there was a sudden knock at the front door. "I got it," Gregg got up from the couch and walked up to the door. Upon opening it, he was pleasantly surprised to see Lori on the other side. "Oh, what's up?"  
"Nothin' much. Mae and Kari are out at the laundry mat, gonna be gone for like an hour so I decided to come by here so I won't be lonely," Lori explained. She lived with Mae and Kari now, being a sort of adopted daughter to them both. They even celebrated the mouse's 15th birthday earlier that month.  
"Well, come on in I guess," Gregg shrugged as the mouse walked in.  
"How's your back? You still on that pain med?" Angus inquired. Lori was still recovering from the extensive injuries along her back, and the sort of on-the-spot first aid that Angus provided at least stopped her bleeding back then, but it soon caused a good deal of pain as she needed a proper trip to the hospital a month ago, and was now on prescription pain medication.  
"Mhm. Could be worse, I suppose..." Lori admitted. She went over and sat on the couch, trying not to sit all the way back as to keep pressure off her back.  
"I can get you something to drink. We got some Fiascolas in the fridge, some grape soda, uh... Tap water," Gregg offered. "Actually tap water's probably not a good idea."  
"I'll just take some grape soda, thanks," Lori casually answered as the fox went over to the fridge. The mouse seemed rather down, though, her gaze not particularly focused on anything.  
"... What's wrong?" Angus asked. There was something up, he could tell. Gregg walked over with a purple can of grape soda, which Lori gently took.  
"I still just feel so..." the mouse started, trying to keep her breath stable as she explained. "So... Responsible for what happened to her. To Bea, I mean..." despite her efforts, her breath hastened as she started huffing.  
"Oh, Lori..." Angus pulled her close to his side. "None of it was your fault."  
"Easy for you to say. She jumped in to safe me, and, and..."  
"Sshh..." Angus gently shushed, trying to comfort her. "It's like she said, she wouldn't have wanted to see you die. I... I wish it never happened, but..."  
"I know she would've rather it be her than any of us, but I don't think that feeling of 'It's my fault' will ever really go away. Maybe it will, but... I dunno," the mouse shrugged.  
"Have you brought this up to Mae and Kari? Mae was like, Bea's best friend, and if Mae wants to tell you it wasn't on you, you should probably believe her," Gregg brought up.  
"I... I guess. Thanks, guys," Lori found a bit of comfort in that, at least.

...  
Back in Possum Springs, a few townsfolk weren't so willing to abandon their homes as they tried to recover with the help of neighboring police and aid departments. Try as they may, it was likely that they could never truly recover from the turmoil brought on by Ibon's spell, and eventually the town would be done for, for good.  
But off to the west of the town, in the dense forest near the coal mine, something... quite peculiar would occur. Without warning, a deep red glow would emanate from the cave entrance leading to the mine, followed by a loud, enraged roaring sound. After the roar rang out, the glow died down... Only for the entire area of the forest above the mines to suddenly collapse in a large sinkhole, causing the ground to shake all around.  
Some distance away, an orange cat in a black sweatshirt with a few short scars on his forehead watched from a large branch on a tree as the cave system collapsed, a dust cloud kicking up from the sinkhole. The feline closed his eyes and sighed lightly.

"Just can't keep you down, huh...?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you think it would be that easy to kill a god?
> 
> To be continued in Accursed Spring.


End file.
